


It Was Always You

by loveyoutoobits (lostflares)



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Panic Attacks, almost dying happens, but like they're teachers, shitty/lardo if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-15
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2019-02-02 23:30:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 45,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12736509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostflares/pseuds/loveyoutoobits
Summary: Looking back now I know it was always youEric Bittle is a brand new teacher at Samwell High School, teaching Home Economics and coteaching PE with one Jack Zimmermann. They get off to a rocky start, but all their friends can see what the two of them can't: that they were made for each other. They ensue to set the two of them up, but knowing the SMH crew, things don't always go to plan.In some ways though, the way to a man's heart is through his students.





	1. Eric Bittle

**Author's Note:**

> This is the longest thing I have ever written in my life and I am so glad to be done with it.
> 
>  
> 
> Note: The high school I wrote is based loosely off the high school I went to (it's a place in California, but I ain't saying the name). Please do not yell at me about things that your high school did differently. I write more or less what I know. There's a few differences so that it's also based off of N's Samwell (like Faber existing), but other than that, there is very little different between the way my school functioned and the way the school I wrote about functioned.

Eric was going to be late. Somehow, he was going to be later than the kids he was supposed to teach. When he was hired to work at Samwell, Eric never expected he would be late on the first day of school. All that was going through his head was  _ Oh god I’m going to be fired on the first day of school oh no my mama will be so disappointed in me. _

 

He finally got to Samwell High School, and was caught off guard, not for the first time, of the beauty that was Faber, the ice rink for the hockey team and general skating. While he would also be working there, he was in fact late for his first home ec class, and should stop being caught by Faber. He pulled up to the front building, before running down the empty hallways, before reaching a classroom that was surrounded by twenty something students milling around the closed, locked door.

 

“Sorry I’m late, y’all. Don’t have a reasonable excuse, unfortunately. Let’s get inside, and start day one of Home economics!” Eric pulled out his set of keys and unlocked the door, swinging it open and ushering the students into the room. Before he himself entered, he checked his watch, and was thankful he was only five minutes late. He went to the front of the classroom to the cooking bench, placing his bag on the counter, next to the fridge. At least he had had the foresight to stock the fridge and pantry with quality ingredients. Too bad today was only syllabus day.

* * *

“Thanks for payin’ attention, y’all. See ya tomorrow!” Eric waved the last kid out the door, and breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t taught seniors before, and was worried about all the horror stories he had heard from his last school. Luckily, everything went smoothly, and he would also be in time for the next class after the break.

 

Eric was looking over the roster for his next class and counting out the next set of syllabi, when there was a knock at the open door. He glanced up, and hoped to  _ god _ that he wasn’t slack-jawed, because the most gorgeous man stood in the door, with a look of annoyance on his face. Eric cleared his throat and put down his papers, turning fully to the man that he finally recognized as one of the other teachers from the first staff meeting.

 

“Hi, what can I do ya for?” He tried really hard to remember the man’s name, but all he could remember is that he taught history.

 

“You were late,” the man said bluntly, and Eric’s smile faltered. “I was trying to find you before school, so we could talk about today’s classes, but you weren’t here.”

 

“I’m sorry, I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.” Eric wasn’t smiling anymore, too confused to even put on his usual front. He was pretty sure that the man standing in front of him only taught history.

 

“For the gym classes, that happen later in the day? You know, that we’re joint teaching? After lunch?” The man said it in monotone, but still managed to convey his major annoyance in Eric’s lack of memory. But Eric finally did remember. It clicked. The man before him was Jack Zimmermann, the senior history teacher and the gym teacher that Eric would be working with in the afternoons. 

 

When Eric was hired, they had made a note that they needed a gym teacher, and Eric had made the offhanded comment that his dad was a football coach and that he himself was a junior figure skating champion, and that, at his old school, he was sometimes brought in to sub for the gym classes. And suddenly, he was hired for two positions. At the first staff meeting, which was mainly used as a way to tell the new rules for the new school year, Eric tried to meet everyone, and  _ had _ met Jack, and  _ had _ learned that he was also a gym teacher, but hadn’t put two and two together that they would be working together.

 

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! No one told me that we would be workin’ together. I’ve got time now, if you wanna talk about it.”

“No, it’s fine. Today is just syllabus day anyways. Just come in half an hour early tomorrow.” And with that, Jack turned around and left, presumably to go to his own class. Eric pursed his lips, but instead of saying anything, he just sighed and set an earlier alarm on his phone anyways. He was lucky that the syllabus for the gym classes had been sent to him already, so at least he knew what to expect for today. He sighed again and finished preparing for the next class.

* * *

The next two home ec classes ended without much problem, and Eric was beginning to feel confident that nothing else would go wrong today. But it was time for the gym classes he would be joint teaching with Jack. These were the last three classes in the day, and from his first interaction with Jack that he actually remembered, Eric wasn’t looking forward to working with him. He may be drop dead gorgeous, but with a personality like that, Eric didn’t think he’d have any fun.

As Eric walked towards the gym, he became determined to make these classes fun to teach, even if it was working with Mr. Handsome-yet-dull. Eric picked up his pace, weaving between the kids in the hallway, giving a few nods to the kids he recognized from his classes earlier. He was determined to try to beat Jack to the gym, even if he’d have to rush every day from his other classroom.

However, once Eric reached the gym, Jack was already waiting there, even though it had only taken Eric three minutes to walk the distance between the two classrooms. Even being slightly early brought a disapproving frown to Jack’s face, and Eric had to try really hard not to look disappointed. He didn’t understand why he wanted to impress Jack so hard, but he also didn’t want to let Jack know that he was trying to impress.

“Oh good, you’re finally here. Did you look over the syllabus, or do I need to hand you one too?” Jack said, offering one of the printed copies, like Eric was a student, not a teacher.

“I did read it, thank you very much, Mr. Zimmermann.” Eric was a bit indignant, he’ll admit. Jack didn’t seem to catch it though, nodding.

“Good, good. We have three classes of 40 students each, which is why they put two teachers together. I wouldn’t want to do all the work,” Jack said. Eric was trying really hard not to frown visibly with every word that came out of Jack’s mouth.

“Well I wouldn’t want that either. Look, the kids are coming in, let’s just get ready for them, shall we?” Eric went to the back room, to the coaches’ office in the locker room. There were two desks, one that was empty of decorations or anything, and the other desk had minimal decoration. A few pictures, a couple trophies, and a couple medals. Eric didn’t look too closely at any of it, instead lying his bag down on the other desk, before going back out to where Jack was directing the kids to sit on the floor.

Eric watched him for a moment, noticing the soft look he had for the kids, that changed almost instantly when Jack noticed Eric standing off to the side a moment too long. Eric started at the intense stare, and went and joined Jack up front, only a little bit sheepishly. Jack gave him another look, but went back to telling the kids who were entering to sit on the floor, making it known every so often that roll would be taken, but it wouldn’t make any difference where they sat.

Once the kids were situated, Jack handed over the roll sheet to Eric quietly, and Eric took it with a nod. He was glad that Jack was actually going to give him some of the work, despite all that he had said earlier.

“Hi, kids. My name is Eric Bittle, and y’all can call me Bittle or Eric. Coach Bittle is my father.” Eric nodded over to Jack, who gestured back for Eric to continue, before leaning back with his arms crossed. “This here is Coach Jack Zimmermann. We will be joint teaching you for this semester. Now, I’ll be going through the roll call and Coach Zimmermann will be going through the syllabus, which he will pass out after roll. Let’s get started. Tera Anfera?”

Eric began going through the roll, marking every so often an absent student, or a correction in pronunciation, or a preferred name. Jack seemed content to stand off to the side for the time being, gripping the syllabi, and watching the students.

“… Steve Zallipski? Alright, that’s everyone! Now, turn your attentions back to Coach Zimmermann, and we’ll go over the syllabus.” Jack nodded, pushing off the wall.

“After I pass out the syllabus, I want you all to look it over for a few minutes, and then we will go over it. If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask me or Bittle.” Jack handed out stacks to the kids in the front corners, with directions to pass it to the center, and to return the rest to Eric. 

Whereas Jack had leaned against the wall while Eric was talking, Eric stayed standing where he was, and smiling whenever he made eye contact with the students. Eric was determined to continue with a better first impression with the students than he made with Jack. Eric had recognized a few of the names from his earlier classes too, and wanted to continue the good impression on them.

Jack glanced at his watch, and clapped his hands once. “Alright. Time to go over what you just read. The class will be broken into different units, with the first unit being general track, and the last field being the swim unit. The winter unit, the longest unit, will be the skate unit, conducted at Faber. It is broken up over winter break, but Faber will be open, and there will be some classes that will be conducted if you want to retain what you learn over the two weeks.” After the summary, Jack proceeded to give a more in-depth go over of the syllabus. It took a total of ten minutes to go over completely.

“Since this is a joint class, we will each be taking half of you each day, and although what we will each be teaching you will basically be the same, there will be different structures to our teaching styles. Especially during the winter skate unit: I will be teaching those of you who would want to learn hockey skills, and Bittle will be teaching those who would rather learn figure skating. You have until the end of November to tell us exactly what you want to learn in that unit, so I would think long and hard if I were all of you. We will be reminding you of this at the beginning of November.” 

Eric was impressed that Jack could even say that much. He didn’t look like someone who spoke all that much in his classes, but athletics seemed to bring out another side to him. Eric hoped he could match his passion. He wasn’t as interested in it as he was in cooking.

Once Jack finished with the syllabus, he told the kids to just hang out for the rest of class. He reminded them again that they could ask any questions, and then dismissed them for the remainder. Eric nodded his agreement, flashing one of his bright smiles to the kids. The majority of them went off into groups, chatting and playing around. A few others went up to Jack, and Eric watched them quietly talk, excitedly offering pens and paper, to an exasperated Jack. Eric didn’t make much note of it, as a few kids from his home ec classes came up, excited to see a teacher they knew already.

The rest of the class went the same, a few kids coming up to each of them through the last 20 minutes, but the two of them didn’t talk until the class was over and it was time to get ready for the next one. But in the five minutes between the two, Jack only wordlessly handed over the next roll sheet.

“Let’s do everything the same for the next two classes. There isn’t a difference between the three classes in terms of syllabi. I think you’ll do a better job reading their names.” Eric had noticed his accent earlier, and nodded. It was fine for him that way too, because this way he would learn everyone’s names quickly. Though he had a feeling  that Jack wouldn’t have any issues after today. Eric thought that Jack would probably spend time looking over the names for all of his classes, and learn each and every one. Eric knew that he himself would, and despite the way Jack had interacted with him, Jack didn’t seem like all that bad of a guy.

* * *

The next two classes ran smoothly, just like the first, and Jack was again pursued by a few students after he released them for the remainder of class. After the third time, Eric finally began to get curious, but wanted to wait until they were in their shared office. After the final bell, Eric left to go to get his bag, and Jack matched his steps. They wordlessly walked back to the office together, not hostile but not friendly either. Eric reached the office first, and held the door open for Jack, who nodded in thanks.

Again, Eric glanced at the two desks, and sighed at his empty side. He looked over to Jack’s desk, and finally looked at the photos and trophies and medals, just a little closer. It was then that Eric decided to ask Jack.

“Some of the kids came up to you with pens and paper, what for?” Eric didn’t want to ask yet about what he was currently looking at. He wanted Jack to confirm his suspicions first. His parents didn’t raise him to assume anything.

“Oh uh haha that. I used to do hockey in juniors until… uh well something happened. My dad was also a pro player though. So, they were asking for my autograph.” Jack laughed, a bit uncomfortable, Eric could tell. Eric wondered why, until Jack continued. “You don’t want one, do you?”

“Oh no. I had no idea about you or your father. Err… Who is your dad, if I may ask?” Eric didn’t have any clue, despite watching hockey all his life. After Eric asked though, Jack visibly untensed.

“Ah, he’s Bad Bob Zimmermann. He last played for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Won a couple cups with them too. And has… a lot of cups.” Jack kind of chuckled uncomfortably, but Eric was already nodding.

“Oh yeah, I guess there was a Zimmermann in the NHL. I played a bit of hockey in high school myself, only on a co-ed team, but I didn’t go to a college that had a team, so I only got to skate a few times in college. I keep up to date with the league these days though, since I always loved the sport. My team is the Falconers,” Eric said. He was glad this conversation they were having, although a bit uncomfortable, wasn’t accusatory anymore. With each thing Eric said about hockey, Jack seemed to relax.

“Oh, yeah, the Falconers… I know a few of the players from back in juniors...” Jack seemed like he wanted to say something more, but decided against it. Eric decided that that was ok, since it was only day one, and they had an entire year of talking like this. He was sure that they could be friends after all. Eric checked his watch, and waved good-bye to Jack.

“I’ve got to run, but I’ll be seeing you half an hour before school, right?” Eric said. Jack stumbled out a ‘bye’, and with that, Eric grabbed his bag and was out the door, on his way home.

* * *

The next morning, Eric woke up an hour earlier, and managed to get to the school 45 minutes early, instead of five minutes late. Definitely a marked improvement, but Eric was determined to get there an hour early tomorrow, even if just to prove to himself that he can. Since he had time to kill before his meeting with Jack, Eric decided to stop by the staff lounge, to meet again the teachers he was only able to say hello to at the summer staff meeting. There was one each week, but it wasn’t until Friday. Being only Tuesday, he wanted to at least be able to talk to them.

When Eric entered the lounge, there were four teachers in there, all casually chatting. Eric recognized the art teacher, the economics and government teacher, gender studies and psychology teacher, and the biology teacher. He had met them all briefly, but didn’t remember their names. Luckily, or unluckily, the gender studies psych teacher noticed him.

“Brah! Dude! Come over here, let’s get to know each other!” The man came over to Eric, and pulled him closer. “The name’s Shitty Knight. Shitty is a nickname, because the first name’s shitty. You can call me Shitty. Including around the other students. Although… probs not around the principal.” Eric was quickly overwhelmed by Shitty’s energy, but he was catching up.

“Oh, my name is Eric Bittle. I’m teaching home ec and, uh, gym with Jack. Err. Zimmermann.” Shitty whooped, and Eric started.

“Jack! I love that man. My best friend. We do some joint classes too, especially when talking about the history of gender studies. And he’s got an amazing butt,” Shitty sighed, and Eric nearly choked. Luckily, the art teacher pulled Shitty off him, and with a small punch, turned to Eric.

“Don’t listen to Shitty. He’s always like this whenever someone mentions Jack. How anyone could handle that, I couldn’t tell you. The name’s Larissa Duan, I teach art.” She gave Eric a warm smile, and he matched it, though he was still a bit off guard from Shitty.

“I’m Justin Oluransi, and this is Adam Birkholtz. I teach bio, and he teaches econ and gov. Don’t mind Shitty.”

“Although, he isn’t wrong. Jack does have an amazing butt.” Adam butted in. Eric was slightly overwhelmed by everyone, but they were all friendly enough. He didn’t think he would have to make a good impression on these guys.

“We missed meeting you yesterday. Jack told us you were late to school?” Larissa asked him, both genuine, accusatory, and curious, seemingly all at once. It was both disconcerting and reassuring.

“Ah yeah. I overslept, and then the traffic was just _ dreadful _ and I got a bit caught off guard by the windows and overall building that is Faber.” The other four nodded sagely, and Eric was reassured by the fact that he wasn’t the only one.

“So, instead of being five minutes late, you got here 45 minutes early?” Shitty asked this question, with a joking tone. Before Eric could reply, a sixth voice chimed in.

“Yeah, I asked him to get here half an hour early, so we could go over the day’s lesson plans.” Jack entered the room, and Shitty immediately went over to give him a giant hug, which Eric was surprised to see that Jack accepted with a laugh. He seemed in a better mood today, but that might just be because he was with all his friends.

“Ah, makes sense. Jacky-boy here likes to be extra prepared, and gets annoyed if something doesn’t go exactly to his plan. He seems to forget that other people don’t know his plan,” Shitty said. He ruffled Jack’s hair, Jack objecting, before continuing. “He’ll warm up to you eventually. Don’t take anything personally, and if you do, tell me about it.”

“Shitty, come on! Bittle, we need to start discussing what to do today, and I want to finish before we have to get ready for our first classes.” Jack pulled himself away from Shitty, who tried one last ruffle, which Jack brushed off with a laugh. Larissa, Adam, and Justin watched the interaction with amusement, but Eric just felt confused. He had just thought the day before that he and Jack could be friends, but seeing how Jack interacts with his friends compared to how he interacts with him, that hope dwindled just a little. Eric allowed Jack to direct him over to the other end of the staff lounge, away from the noisy quartet.

“What’s the plan for our classes, then? Split the class, one in the gym, one out on the track?” Eric asked. He hadn’t actually been a gym teacher before, and appreciated that Jack was there to direct him. They may be equals, but Jack had been working here longer, and Eric was fine letting him take the lead.

“Pretty much. For this unit, it will just be split evenly for the classes. For each day, we’ll switch off. I was thinking that you would take the ones inside first, and I’ll go outside. We’ll teach the same students,” Jack said. He was in full business mode, or sports mode, or whatever it was.

“How ‘bout I just take the students inside? I’m not all that used to coaching yet, and I think it would be easier for me to control the kids in a smaller space. Next unit, we could switch off from inside and outside, with a different split of the kids.” Eric had done some thinking about it all. First unit, he would think that it would be easier to meet everyone that way. Switching the groups for the next unit, and each unit.

“Hmm, alright, makes sense. For today, then, let’s discuss what we’ll each do,” Jack started saying. For the rest of the discussion, it was strictly professional, and Eric was only a little disappointed. It was interesting just to listen to Jack speak. Eric could hear the passion despite the professionalism.

It took another ten minutes of discussion, but Eric knew exactly what he would be doing today, and for that he was thankful for Jack telling him to come in early. And he was determined even more so to get in early for the rest of the week, month, semester.

* * *

“… And that’s how we make a pie crust. Now, we will put the crusts in the fridge for the night, and make the filling tomorrow!” Eric began to patrol the cooking benches that the students were working at. He had decided ahead of time that the first lesson would be to bake a pie, then he would get into the actual curriculum. Being able to make a pie was an important thing. And Eric was willing to share his moomaw’s recipe.

“Oh Amanda, that crust looks beautiful! Sam, I love what you did with the edges. Georgie, I’m impressed! You told me you hadn’t done any baking before, but your crust is spot on!” Eric went around, complimenting or fixing, never criticizing. He wanted his kids to enjoy cooking, because a kid who could cook was a kid who could live. Sure, a pie isn’t very nutritional, but it was only the first of many recipes that Eric would teach his three classes.

“When y’all are done, bring your pans up to my counters, and place them with the note card in the center with your name on it. And once done with that, please clean up your workstations, and return to your seats.” The kids began to bring their crusts up one by one, and Eric began to take them out to the industrial fridge. Once they were all loaded, and the kids were back in their seats, Eric told them how good of a job they were doing, but reminded them that this was only the first week, and that they would get into the actual school stuff and learning in the next few weeks.

Just as he was finishing up, the bell rang, and the kids all got up to leave. Eric watched them go. They all seemed engaged and interested in what he had to teach, and that was frankly the biggest compliment. Eric always liked to know he was doing a good job at his job.

The next two classes went just as smoothly, with just as much praise to give around, and by the time Eric was to head off to the first gym class of the day, he had a full fridge of pie dough and a happy heart. He hoped that mood would carry over to the next three classes. Even if it had to deal with cool and professional Jack Zimmermann. Eric set off for the gym, and was surprised to see he was the first one there. There wasn’t anything to do until the students finished changing, so Eric went to his office.

He and Jack shared an office at the gym, and it was obvious which side was Jack’s. There were pictures on the desk, and a row of trophies on a shelf. Eric glanced at the other side of the room, frowning at the plainness. He didn’t have time to fix it before class, so he made a mental note to put things up later. Eric sat at his desk, with nothing to do for ten minutes. 

He messed around with his phone for a minute before he got a phone call from his mom. Eric checked the clock before answering. He had a little time, and if he didn’t, he always made time for his mom.

“Hey mama. Is something going on? You make it sound like I'm a student again, mama. I have a few minutes to talk right now. Not bad, my home ec classes are amazing, and the kids are already so good! It's so fun to teach them. Haven't had them yet... But there's another teacher who's already got a problem with me, seems like. I think he hates my guts. All It was was that I was late to school! I only overslept a little bit. But this guy... Jack is the most dedicated and most insufferable guy. He wants me to be early from now on. 

“Not like I didn't try. Got lost along the way and ended up later than even oversleeping would get me. And he comes in ready to bite my head off! How was I supposed to know that he wanted to talk to me before school? I ain't a mind reader! Wish he'd at least tried to get in touch with me before today. Instead, I feel like this class is just going to be awful with him mama. Jack Zimmermann is gonna be the worst coworker I've ever had, mark that down.” Whatever else Eric was going to say to his mom was cut off when Jack walked in.

The two men stared at each other for a moment. Eric’s mom was talking on the other end of the line, but Eric wasn’t listening anymore. He had just insulted Jack to his face, but not by talking to him. And that’s probably the worst part. Eric was shit-talking Jack to his own mother.

“Mama, I’m gonna have to call you back. Yeah, class is starting soon.” Eric hung up, never taking his eyes off Jack. Jack for his part didn’t look angry, just a little sad. “Jack, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean--”

“But you did. You meant every word,” Jack interrupted. He grabbed a bag that was sitting in the corner, and left before Eric could say anything in his defense. Eric watched the door close behind him, mentally kicking himself. He’d have to wait to apologize to Jack until after class. Maybe even until after school was out. This was going to be a long rest of the day.

He waited a few more minutes before deciding to just go out to the gym and wait for everyone. The small office was just a little too small for his comfort right now. He wasn’t looking forward to seeing Jack again after that interaction, but Eric was a professional. He wasn’t going to let his interactions with another teacher affect his work.

Eric had brought the clipboard with the two roll sheets on it, one for him and one for Jack, and was waiting for the kids, and Jack, to join him for roll call. They had decided to split the roll into two before class, and Eric had volunteered to do it during the fifteen minute break. That way, since they were both still learning everyone’s names, they wouldn’t have to ask.

Eric pulled the two sheets from the clips, and put them side by side. He watched as the last of the kids, and finally Jack, came out to join him on the gym floor. Jack had changed, but Eric was horrified to learn what his athletic wear was. T-shirt, leggings, shorts (which would’ve been the worst), and bright yellow running shoes (which were the worst). It almost was bad enough for Eric to talk to him, but he was still mortified about what had happened earlier, so he kept his comments to himself. Once all the kids were there, Eric began the class.

“Alright everyone. Today we will start our first unit, track and field. We will be splitting the class in two, and one group will stay inside with me, and the other will go out to the track with Coach Zimmermann. As I go through roll, the first set of names will be going outside. We’ve already divided the class, so we’re sorry if your friend groups get split up. For Coach Zimmermann’s group, we’ve got Freddy Baines?” Eric went down the first set of names, and when he got to the last one he handed the list off to Jack. Jack called for the kids standing to come with him, and after they had all shuffled out the door to the fields, Eric turned to the remaining group.

“Now, y’all get to stay with me, but I gotta make sure y’all are all here. So, Tera Anfera?” Eric went through is set of the roll, and after the last kid, he called for the kids to get into rows of four. Eric began to teach the class, joining them on each exercise, and he was glad that the next time he would see Jack would be in 40 minutes.

* * *

The next two classes were far less mortifying, and Eric and Jack managed to get through their entire curriculum without a hitch. Afterwards, Eric went back to the office, and pulled open his gym bag, taking out his own decorations for his desk. He had another desk in the home ec classroom, which he had nicely decorated, but he didn’t like how plain his side looked compared to Jack’s. He placed a photo of his family, a photo from his college graduation, a photo from his last school with the kids he gave diplomas to. He Command-stripped his own few medals to the wall, the gold glinting back at him like a proud memory. On his desk, he set down a pen cup filled with pens and pencils and a pair of scissors. Eric glanced over at Jack, who was clicking away at his computer instead of watching Eric, but still Eric was wary as he pulled a small rainbow flag out of his gym bag and stuck it into the pen cup.

Satisfied that he was well decorated, Eric began to do his own work on the computer, filling in his side of the rosters. He was proud that he was already starting to remember the names of the kids. He was sure by the end of the week, he would know all one hundred or so kids that he taught. He made a mental note to figure out how many kids overlapped in his classes, and then to figure out how many kids from that that he taught total.

He was broken out of his thoughts by a cough from the other desk, and he looked up to see Jack looking over at him.

“I’m sorry you think I’ll be the worst coworker you’ve ever had.” Jack said bluntly. Eric flinched, but didn’t look away from Jack.

“I’m so sorry you had to hear any of that, really. I was just venting about our conversation from earlier. I don’t really think any of that, you know. I can’t know anything just from the first day, right?” Eric said. It wasn’t a great apology, but Eric didn’t want to stick around longer, or talk about it anymore. He picked up both his bags, giving a small wave to Jack, before leaving for the day. Any hope of being friends with Jack were put on indefinite hold after all that.

* * *

The next two days, Eric did all that he promised himself: he arrived an hour early, hanging out in the staff lounge and meeting some of the other teachers. It seemed each day that there were different people in the room, with a few of the others from before. Each day it seemed that Shitty was there, though Eric only had the three days to base it on. Shitty always seemed excited to see him though, and Eric appreciated his eccentricity. 

Larissa was there on Thursday, and Eric found that she sort of mellowed Shitty out, even just a little. Eric figured there was more to that, and hoped he’d find out eventually. Justin and Adam were never seen apart, despite the fact that their subjects couldn’t be more different. They were always popping into each other’s classes, Eric found out, and he wondered if they even had a full set of classes.

In his own classes, Eric’s home ec students began to finish their pies, and he told them that they would be able to take them home come Friday. The kids were excited, and Eric again thought how lucky he was to have three engaged classes. He hoped it was the case, anyways. None of them even seemed disappointed that they would be doing something far less interesting the next week. Maybe because they had made something all on their own, that Eric was reassuring them would taste delicious.

Even in the classes he taught with Jack, nothing went wrong. Eric chose to change in the bathroom instead of the office on Wednesday, but when he left he was met with Jack’s surprised face, waiting outside the office. It was enough to break any lingering discomfort from the day before, as they both burst out laughing. From then on, the relationship between the two was mostly professional. They didn’t talk past their classes anymore, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable atmosphere anymore either.

Eric wouldn’t deny that he was a little disappointed, but at least he knew that he could try to build on their relationship with more time. They’ve only known each other for less than a week, so it wasn’t like it ruined any chances of becoming friends. They would meet in the staff lounge for twenty minutes to go over the lesson plan each day, but for the first week it was all the same as the first day, just with a different group of students.

It went smoothly, that is, until Friday morning, and the first staff meeting of the school year. Eric was nervous, but determined. He had met everyone before at the meeting in the summer, but he wanted to try to become friends with everyone, and try to build a system. A system of friends, but a system nonetheless.

Eric entered the meeting room a few minutes before the start of the meeting. The meeting itself was more of a check in from the last week and an introduction for the next week, but Eric didn’t really know what to expect. Shitty and Jack were already there, sitting next to each other, with another man on the other side of Jack, who Eric partially recognized as the weird math teacher that he heard more about than he saw. Larissa was sitting next to Shitty, and when she saw Eric, she gestured for him to join her on her other side.

He saw Adam and Justin across from Jack and weird math teacher, but everyone else he had only met in passing: the English teacher and woodshop teacher who couldn’t stand each other but were still friends, the happy-go-lucky counselor that Eric wanted to protect at all costs, a very confused sub, a dismissive special ed teacher, and a loud theater teacher. There were a few other teachers he hadn’t met yet, but he was determined to meet everyone.

Once everyone settled down, the principal and vice principal walked in. Principal Hall looked around the room, making a mental count of the teachers, and with a satisfied nod sat at the head of the table. Vice principal Murray stayed standing.

“The Samwell senior staff meeting will now come to a start. Anyone have anything to report?” Eric understood this to mean ‘anything bad’, and so he kept his mouth shut. A few of the others around the room shook their heads, and Hall in turn nodded his. “Good. The first order of business then is discussing classroom policies…” For the next half hour, this was all they talked about, and Eric couldn’t help but check the clock every once in a while. If he wanted to meet any of the other teachers more, he wanted this meeting to end quickly, especially if Jack still wanted to talk about their plans.

“Now that that’s all out of the way, you are all dismissed. Please keep up the good work. Remember, these kids are the future,” Hall said, bringing Eric out of his head. Most of the people Eric hadn’t met took their leave, but those that he had only met once chose to stay, which Eric would take.

Before he could go introduce himself, again, to them, though, Larissa turned to him in her chair.

“Yo, Eric. How’s the school treating you? You’ve only been here a week, and I bet it isn’t at all like your last school.” She wasn’t wrong, but it’s not like the last school was all that different.

“Hey now, this school is only a bit bigger, so it’s pretty much the same. The kids are wonderful, responding well and excited to learn. I’m glad to be here teaching them.” Eric smiled easily at her, and she matched it with a smirk.

“Oh brah, tell us ‘bout your last school. I hear your graduating class was only ‘bout fifty,” Shitty butted in. Eric noticed that his conversation with Larissa had a bit of an audience, and the attention was a little uncomfortable. For some reason, Eric looked over to Jack, who was holding his own conversation with the math teacher, and Eric was surprised to find he was relieved.

“Ah yeah. The whole school was pretty small, but my daddy had coached football there, and he said he could get me a job as a starting point. I even went to the school, and so I ended up working alongside people who had taught me.” Eric left out the part where he left because he was gay, and wanted to go somewhere he could be more open about it. A small high school in Georgia didn’t seem the place. A staff meeting on the last day of his first week didn’t seem the place to tell the staff that either.

“Oh that’s cool. Does that mean you played football?” This question came from the English teacher, Derek Nurse. He had talked some in the meeting, and Hall had addressed him by name.

“Only a little. It wasn’t for me.” Eric paused, wondering how much he should say, but decided, since it’s what got him the second part of his job, that it was ok to mention it. “Actually, when I was younger, I did competitive figure skating, and was a junior figure skating champion. We uh… moved to a different town though and away from my coach so I couldn’t continue. Instead, I did some co-ed hockey in high school.”

Eric’s audience gave some oo’s and ah’s to his mention of being a champion, and some “That sucks, man”s because of him having to stop. The guys all chimed in with their own sports stories, and it was going well, until Shitty brought Jack into the conversation.

“This guy, he used to do hockey, but was also almost  _ pro _ . Woulda gone number one in the draft, but dropped off the face of the planet right before. Imagine my shock upon coming to Samwell to teach, to find out Jack fucking Zimmermann had stopping doing hockey… to become a history teacher. Can you believe it?” Shitty slung an arm around Jack’s front, dragging him away from his conversation and into theirs, turning him around so that Eric could see just how uncomfortable Jack was with it all. Eric remembered Jack mentioning having done juniors, but had assumed by ‘something happened’ that Jack was talking about an injury.

“Shitty, we talked about this. I don’t  _ want _ to talk about this.” Jack looked like he might bolt at any second, and Shitty took his arm from around his shoulders.

“Sorry brah.” He held up his hands in an appeasing manner, and Jack turned back to talking to the math teacher about who knows what. Eric’s curiosity was piqued though, and he wanted to know just what happened. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to look it up, and he definitely didn’t want to ask. He didn’t want to make Jack hate him.

For the rest of the time they were there, Eric chatted with everyone left, including Derek Nurse, Will Pointdexter, and Chris Chow, who Eric learned was the main reason the other two were friends. He was jostled around by everyone, people who Eric found were much taller than himself, but were all making an effort themselves to be friends with him, which he both appreciated and reciprocated.

He invited them to come by his home ec classroom during lunch, to offer the three pies he had baked with his three classes, since they would all be done by then. Everyone said they would stop by, even Jack, though Shitty had to threaten bodily force to get him to go. Shitty even made the argument that if Eric would be going to his classroom at lunch, since the two of them would be teaching a class right before and right after, that it just made sense to go with Eric. And after that well argued point, Jack conceded.

Once everyone shifted to their own groups, spilling out of the room, presumably to go to their own classrooms, Jack came up to Eric.

“Bittle. Let’s talk about where we want to go with the next week.” He was again purely professional, but Eric couldn’t help but feel the odd tension that came up after Shitty talked about Jack’s days in hockey. It was like every interaction they had went one step forward and two steps back. Eric wasn’t sure how to fix that.

* * *

Eric mulled it over for the majority of the day, even as he smiled at his kids, congratulating them on their pies, even as he ran laps in the first class of gym. He grew almost restless come the end of class, as he went and grabbed his bag to head back to his home ec classroom, to have pie with a bunch of his fellow teachers. Including Jack.

Eric almost forgot that Jack had agreed to go with Eric, which is why he was surprised when Jack fell into step with him, making almost no sound. They walked like that in silence, until they happened to run into Shitty in the hallway, and Eric listened mostly as Shitty talked about his classes.

He was surprised to find a whole group of teachers mulling around outside his door, reminiscent to the first day of classes when Eric was late to school. He pushed through to unlock the doors, listening to the excited chatter. He couldn’t help but smile, considering none of them had even tried any of his baking before. If they were this excited already, who knew what their reaction would be upon eating it.

Eric pushed open the door, and the group of nine teachers pushed past him, before he could even set foot inside. Only Jack looked a bit sheepish, but Shitty had a hand on his back, shoving him forward.

“Y’all can go make yourselves comfortable as I go get the pies,” Eric said. He had brought a portable pie warmer from home, because he had intended to take the pies with him, but it wasn’t like he could finish off all three pies by himself, so he was glad he had so many people to share them with. He came out carrying all three pie tins, and everyone visibly quieted, staring at the pies with hungry eyes.

“They’re all apple, if that’s all right. I had thought about making three different pies for the three different classes, but figured it worked out better this way, ingredient and expenditure-wise.” He placed the pies on the counter, and gestured for the group to help themselves.

Eric grabbed his own slice, and sat at one of the tables, watching as these grown men and Larissa tore his three pies to pieces, helping themselves to generous servings. Eric would be horrified if he hadn’t expected it from the way they had acted beforehand.

“Eric, brah, you are a god. How can anyone even make something that tastes this good?” Shitty moaned. There were a few other similar noises from the other teachers, and Eric noticed that only Jack seemed to be eating the slice he had with even a little grace.

“Yeah, how did you make this? Can you make other things? Like cakes? Birthday cakes? Possibly?” Eric laughed at Chris’s less than subtle attempt to hire him for a birthday cake, but still gave him his number to talk details. To the rest of the group though, he explained himself.

“My moomaw baked the best pies and cakes and anything really, and my mama and me got the recipes straight from her. It’s what I want to teach down to my own kids. I’m lucky I get to help out here in spreading the deliciousness.” A few of them were nodding sagely, like they understood, as if they didn’t have their mouths full of pie. Eric was completely satisfied with their reactions, even Jack’s, who was quietly eating his second slice.

Eric always felt proud of his cooking when someone enjoyed it, but it was another thing to have people he wanted to consider friends enjoying it. It was enough to brighten his mood for the rest of the day.


	2. Shitty Knight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shitty figures it out.

“Jacky boy, that partner of yours can make a mean pie, don’t ya think? I wish we’d gotten him sooner, even if just to try his baking sooner.” Shitty draped his arms over the back of his chair, looking up at the ceiling of the café that he and Jack sat in. Jack glanced up from the books he was going over, cocking an eyebrow.

“Shits, it’s been a full 24 hours. Are you still talking about Bittle’s pie?” Jack asked. Shitty shot him a look, tipping his chair back forward and leaning his elbows on the table, shaking their mugs.

“Jack, my man, you can’t tell me you aren’t still thinking about that pie. I want to marry that pie. Frankly, I’d marry Eric if I could. Imagine eating that quality of food  _ everyday _ Jack.” He slammed his fist on the table, to drive the point home. Shitty wasn’t lying, he’d never tasted anything quite like Eric’s pie. If Jack couldn’t appreciate good cooking, he deserved to live off of plain chicken.

“Fine. It was a good pie.”

“A good pie?? It was a  _ great _ pie!” Shitty wasn’t sure why he was trying so hard to make Jack compliment Eric’s cooking, but he had noticed a weird tension between the two, like something had already happened. Shitty also couldn’t help to think it was his own fault partly, because he had to go brag about Jack’s history. Which isn’t his thing to brag about, or really anything to brag about. Man was a living legend who dropped off the face of the planet, and Shitty happened to be his best friend. That’s mainly what Shitty wanted to brag about, that Jack had decided to be his friend of all people.

“Fine, fine, it was the best pie I’ve ever tasted, Shits. Now can you shut up so I can look over next week’s lesson plan? You should do the same,” Jack chuckled, before turning back to his books. Shitty looked at his best friend, unsure just exactly was up. Jack was acting strangely, and Shitty was never good about keeping his mouth shut.

“Hey, what’s up with you, man? You’re acting weird,” he said. It wasn’t the best way to phrase the question, but Shitty knew Jack didn’t expect a better turn of phrase.

“Nothing’s up, Shitty.” Shitty gave Jack a look, to which Jack sighed, and shut the book he was looking through. “There’s just something about Bittle, I can’t quite figure out.”

Shitty watched Jack for a bit, from the furrowed brows to the slight downturn of his mouth. He figured he knew what it was, but didn’t want to say anything. Yet. He was sure that Jack would figure it out eventually, because he couldn’t be that dense, could he? So Shitty decided to let it slide. Instead, he tried to think of something else to talk about. Jack, though, probably had the same idea, because he moved on to the next topic before Shitty could brace himself.

“So, how’s your chances with Larissa fairing? She turn you down yet?” If Shitty noticed Jack’s small smirk, it didn’t matter, because he was left spluttering and attempting to defend himself.

“How dare… Jack, I thought we were friends? I don’t have… I’m not-” Jack gave him a pointed look, and Shitty sighed. “I haven’t asked her yet. I don’t know man, it’s hard! She’s so cool, and I’m just… me.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I think you have a chance. She likes your hair.” Jack flipped back open his book, pointedly ignoring, to Shitty’s annoyance, Shitty’s shock. There was definitely some way he could get back at Jack for all this, and he was determined to find out. He would let it slide for now.

* * *

“This week, we’re gonna discuss the gender spectrum, gender identities, and how it’s never about biological sex, and how even that is bullshit. Any questions?” Shitty was annoyed, he could hear it in his own voice, and he felt bad for taking it out on his students, but he couldn’t help it. He had mulled over a reason or anything at all that he could use to get back at Jack for his Larissa comments, but Jack hadn’t shown any interest in any girl in all the time that Shitty had known him. Sure, he’d gone on a few dates, but they never went anywhere, and he never really seemed all that interested in the girls he went with.

Tera Anfera raised her hand, and brought Shitty out of his current musings. He nodded for her to speak, and she did so carefully.

“Mr. Knight, are you ok?” She asked, and frankly, he was about ready to break down and tell them all what was bothering him. But he was still a teacher, and had to teach the kids, not try to hook up another teacher with… someone.

“Ah I’m fine. Nothing I want to force on you guys.”  _ Yet _ . He was desperate to bring the kids into it all. “Alright, back to the lesson plan! Contrary to popular belief, nothing is as black and white as it seems, and gender is no different. Who can tell me what they know about the gender spectrum?”

Shitty immersed himself into the rest of his classes, making sure that in each one past the first one was strictly stuck to the lesson plan. He would leave thoughts of what to do about Jack for lunch. He was sure that he could come up with  _ something _ over the next few days.

But come lunchtime, Shitty still didn’t know. He ate lunch with Jack every day, and today was no different. Jack came to his classroom, dressed for his gym classes, just as perturbed as he was on Saturday. Shitty was frustrated that he couldn’t figure out Jack all that much. He’d known him for a few years, and they’d been friends for just as long, but Shitty still didn’t know all that much about Jack. Mostly, it was from Jack’s time before the draft. And of course, the speculation after the draft. Shitty was glad he met Jack at this point in his life, but he was also always infinitely curious to know just exactly what happened at the draft.

Today, Jack was being just as quiet as always, but Shitty could see something else in it. They never talked much at lunch, preferring to sit more in comfortable silence, but Jack was being more closed off than usual.

“Damn man, did something happen in your classes today?” Shitty asked. He didn’t want to lose his edge with Jack, and it seemed like Jack was going right back to the closed off robot Shitty had first met. Jack looked at Shitty, caught off guard, but Shitty guessed that he also didn’t want to lose Shitty as a friend either.

“No. Well, not really, but I can’t my mind wrapped around Bittle.” Jack took a bite of his sandwich, but it seemed more as an invitation for Shitty to respond.

“What’s up? Did he do something?”

“Not exactly. Today, he did what I had told him to do, with a usual smile, but I don’t know… it seemed more tense? Something seemed off, but I don’t know how to talk to him about it. I don’t know how to deal with him, in all honesty.” Shitty didn’t think he’d heard Jack be so serious about something like this, and Shitty started to think he had an idea why Eric bothered Jack so much. He wanted to get further information for it though.

“Why don’t I talk to him for you, brah? I’d been meaning to do so anyways. The kid’s nice, seems like he needs a group,” Shitty said. He figured he’d get both sides, and find a way to get his two friends to be friends. He knew that they had it in them, it was just a matter of getting them to talk. Or something. He’d figure it out after a while.

Jack only grunted around his sandwich, and Shitty took that as a sign. He was determined to talk to Eric, even if it was just for Jack.

* * *

Shitty arrived far too early for himself, but he knew Eric arrived around this time. He admired his dedication, because the boy was only ever late the one time. When Shitty arrived at the staff lounge, however, Eric wasn’t there yet, so Shitty decided to wait, and think about exactly what he wanted to say to Eric.

He mulled it over for a few minutes, when Eric entered the room, looking a little worse for wear. Slightly disheveled, he tossed a yawn out, before moving to the pot of coffee Shitty had put on just a little bit earlier. Shitty waited for Eric to pour himself a cup and take a sip, and waited for him to look up to notice Shitty. It took a few seconds but Eric finally noticed Shitty, and moved to join him.

“Mornin’ Shitty. You’re here early.” Eric yawned again, and Shitty began to wonder just how much sleep Eric got, and just how much coffee he drank, to look as awake and put together as he usually does when Shitty gets there.

“I figured it was a good time to show up today, plus I knew you came this early. Wanted to talk to you, brah,” Shitty said, shrugging. It was the truth, and Shitty prided himself on telling the truth. Eric nodded at him, taking another sip of his coffee.

“What’d you wanna talk about?”

“Jack tells me you’ve been acting a bit weird.” Eric looked at him with wide eyes, and Shitty lamented his lack of a filter, even if it got the job done. He didn’t want to scare the guy away, but he also didn’t know how else to go about it.

“Jack…? Have I… Huh. I guess I just don’t know what to think of Jack, and I don’t want to do anything that could jeopardize the lack of a friendship we’ve got.” Eric sighed, and Shitty nodded. He understood the fear, it’s what he felt for Larissa. Except, Eric didn’t want to jeopardize a friendship with… more friendship.

“Don’t worry about that. Jack, he’s just an awkward robot, doesn’t know how to interact with most people.”

“He can interact with you, though.”

“Yeah well… I’m not most people.” Shitty laughed. “I practically forced Jacky boy to become my friend. I don’t suggest you do the same, since you don’t have the same personality. I promise, you can become friends with him in your own right. I want to see that. I want to see two of my friends become friends.”

Shitty realized he had just called Eric his friend, but he didn’t regret saying it. Eric probably realized it too, because he looked up at Shitty with even wider eyes than before. But it only lasted a second, before his shock turned into a smile.

“Thanks, Shitty. I hope we do become friends,” he said. Shitty wasn’t dense enough to miss the underlying meaning behind ‘we’. He appreciated the subtlety, and the accepting attitude from Eric. It made it just a little easier to deal with the slight slip up.

“So Eric, you said you were a junior figuring skating champion, tell me ‘bout it.” Might as well know as much as he could, for his own sake.

“Ah. Well. It only lasted until we moved when I was in seventh grade. I was… My dad got an offer in Madison, to coach high school football, and it was a better opportunity. So we moved. Unfortunately, my figure skating coach stayed behind. My new high school had a hockey team, and I joined that.” Shitty noticed something off about Eric, but he wasn’t a dick and knew better than to ask. Eric continued, taking a sip of coffee. “Never forgot figure skating though, and it was part of the reason I got this job.”

Shitty nodded. Samwell had been looking for a gym teacher who had knowledge of an ice sport that wasn’t hockey for a few years, since they hired Jack. It was almost like Eric was destined to come here, even if Shitty didn’t believe in destiny.

“You know, I was almost a lawyer? My parents wanted me to go into business, I kind of wanted to go into law, but a teacher of mine suggested I take my passion for my studies and use it to let others be passionate about it too. I found I liked the idea of sticking it to my dad’s side of the family by teaching kids the truth about it all, instead of whatever bullshit belief they want every generation to believe,” Shitty said. He didn’t mean for it to sound like a mini rant, but Eric had told him something, and Shitty wanted to return the favor.

“Well, I’m glad you decided to go into teaching, so I and all of us got to meet you.” Eric smiled at him, and Shitty was surprised to see it was genuine. It wasn’t like he was used to seeing ungenuine smiles, but there was nothing fishy at all about Eric’s smile. Shitty shot him back a smile of his own, trying to match its sincerity.

They chatted for a little longer, but it was interrupted by Larissa walking in, and Shitty got distracted briefly. He was hoping it wasn’t enough for Eric to notice, but when he dropped his eyes back to Eric, Eric was giving him a smile full of mischief.

“No. No no. I know that smile, don’t give me that. You aren’t the first person to give me that smile.” The first being Jack, but Shitty wasn’t going to say that. “It’s unlikely to happen so you don’t even have to say anything, ok? Please, Eric.”

“Shitty, you like her. I figured it out from day one. If you wanted to keep it a secret, you should’ve tried to hide it better.” Eric leaned back in his chair with a shrug, the mischief showing in his eyes. Shitty groaned, but he also didn’t make any attempt to deny it.

“Fine, just… don’t say anything to her? Please? I don’t want to mess up our friendship, you know?” Eric nodded, and Shitty sighed with relief. He knew he and Eric would be good friends, and maybe that they already were. Eric had one of those personalities you couldn’t help but like, and his southern charm didn’t hurt. And neither did his baking. Speaking of his baking…

“Yo, brah, when’s the next time you’re gonna be baking with your classes? Cause I’ll let you know, I have a free period in the morning? And I would be down to be a uh… taste tester if you need one.” Shitty winked, and Eric laughed.

“I’ll let you know, Shitty, the next time we make something. Right now, it’s all about nutrition,” Eric said. Shitty felt he was making progress for himself. He already considered Eric a friend, he could only hope the same could be said for Eric.

“Hey! I just had a thought: why don’t you join me and Jack for lunch sometime this week. We always eat together in my classroom. Why don’t you stop by?” It’s one way to force the friendship between the two, and it was the quickest way, too. Eric hesitated though, and Shitty was worried about his answer.

“Ok. Sure. I usually just eat in my own room, but I think it’ll be fun to eat with other people.” Eric seemed a bit unsure, but Shitty would take a hesitant ‘yes’ over an emphatic ‘no’.

“Swawesome. See you at lunch?” When Eric nodded, Shitty beamed at him, and roped an arm around Eric’s shoulders, ruffling his hair once before getting up. It was going to be a good day, Shitty decided.

* * *

Despite coming from the same place, Jack showed up first. Pulling out his customary sandwich, Shitty allowed him a few bites before saying anything.

“So… I invited Eric to come eat lunch with us.” Jack tossed his head up, pausing mid-bite, but Shitty continued. “And he said yes. Did he not tell you?”

“No. No, he did not. And neither did you.”

“I’m telling you now.” 

Jack sighed, and Shitty gave a shit-eating grin, which only brought an eyeroll. “You know, I’m surprised he didn’t tell you, ‘specially since you guys come from the same place. I wonder where he is…”

Any further musings were interrupted by a timid knock at the door. After Shitty shouted it was open, Eric entered, carrying a lunch bag and a thermos. Shitty watched Jack, noticing his small glare. He wondered just what Jack had against Eric.

“Hey brah, pull up a desk, let’s all get a nice chat in,” Shitty said, and Eric complied, not meeting eyes with Jack. Shitty had a feeling there was something to all this, but he couldn’t place a finger on it. “So Eric, do you live alone?”

Eric froze, his hand twitching over his lunch bag. Shitty opened the door on a conversation they hadn’t talked about earlier, but he felt bad about it, nonetheless. Eric cleared his throat, before continuing to open his lunch.

“Ah, no. No, I am not with anyone,” he said carefully. “What about you, Shitty, made any progress with Larissa yet?”

Jack coughed to hide his laugh, and Shitty sputtered out his indignancy. Eric had hit the nail on the head. Eric laughed with ernest, and Jack joined in, much to Shitty’s annoyance. He was also kind of glad, because his two friends were bonding. Even if it was over his own pain.

Eric pulled out a tupperware from his bag, pulling it open to reveal a serving of pasta. Shitty couldn’t help but to be curious, since Eric had already proven to be quite the chef. Jack, however, had other thoughts in mind.

“Bittle, you should eat more protein.” Jack took a bite of his sandwich, which Shitty knew contained a good serving of protein, as it always did. His own lunch was just chicken tenders he heated up in the microwave he had in his classroom. Eric looked a bit indignant, like he couldn’t believe what Jack said.

“I get plenty of protein, thank you very much, Mr. Zimmermann,” Eric said. Shitty sighed internally, thinking any progress that was made earlier had just immediately shattered. He wondered if that’s how Eric felt about this friendship too. Shitty didn’t know how to make it work. There wasn’t much to go off of, on either side. Eric was a mystery, and Jack was Jack. Shitty just wanted his friends to be friends.

The rest of lunch was quiet, if a bit tense, as they all made their way through their meals. Eric revealed that his thermos had coffee in it, and he magically produced three mugs from his lunch back. Shitty took his mug without much prompting, but saw Jack hesitate a little before taking his own. There was small talk after that, but never about anything other than work. Shitty found it just a bit disappointing.

After they had all finished eating, Eric said that he had to go put his stuff back in his classroom, to wash later. After he left, it was just Shitty and Jack.

“What the fuck was that, man? Eat more protein?” Shitty asked, after Eric had been gone for a few seconds. Jack looked a bit sheepish, toying with the edge of the desk.

“It’s true though, he  _ should _ eat more protein. He’s teaching gym, he needs to be able to keep up with all the kids.” Shitty knew that Jack had had no malice when he said it, but it was just the  _ way _ he said it that probably set Eric off.

“You know, Jaques, if you want to be friends with Eric? You gotta get a different frame of mind. You can’t be all about athletics, you know? It’s only half of what you do,” Shitty said. He tried to phrase it like sage advice, but he knew Jack wouldn’t buy it. Jack sighed, before checking the clock.

“I’ve got to go, Shits. Stay out of trouble, eh? Don’t put too many of your ideas into the minds of the young.” He got up, tossing his trash, and with a small smirk and wave, was out the door. For whatever reason, the fact that Jack brushed it off made Shitty even more determined to make it happen.

All he needed was some help, and a different game plan.

* * *

 

It took a week for Shitty to figure it out. For the rest of this week and into the next, Shitty came in early, to get to know Eric better. Shitty could tell that Eric was dancing around the more personal topics, but he could also tell that he was warming up to the idea of sharing. Shitty found he had that type of quality. It’s something he could be proud of.

At lunch, Eric joined he and Jack a few times, and was mostly quiet, only really talking if he was directly spoken to. Shitty wasn’t sure how to fix this yet, but he was sure, with more time, that he would be able to figure it out.

It wasn’t until Shitty, Eric, and Larissa were all having a conversation after the third staff meeting before Shitty figured out that there was definitely something Eric was hiding. It was mostly mindless, Eric asking Larissa about her art, Shitty praising it, Adam and Justin each roping an arm around Eric’s shoulders when they eventually came over, pushing him shorter with their height. Shitty should’ve known something would go wrong.

“So, a little bird tells us that you’re single, Eric. Would you like to change that?” Adam asked, and Justin nodded. Shitty watched Eric’s eyes go wide, but still didn’t have the foresight to stop it.

“We know that you haven’t been in Samwell for long, but the whole town is filled with hot singles in your area.” Justin added in, and Adam nodded. “What we want to know, is what’s your type?”

Shitty was both annoyed that they were so blunt, and also annoyed that he hadn’t thought to ask earlier. Albeit in a more subtle and less callous way. When Shitty looked to Eric, however, he was surprised to see that Eric looked completely terrified to answer that question. Adam and Justin couldn’t see his face, so they kept talking.

“From what we know about you, you like baking, so maybe a girl who bakes?”

“Oh, oh, maybe a girl who eats a lot!”

“A girl who eats  _ and _ bakes!” Justin and Adam high fived each other, but Eric never moved from his spot. In fact, to Shitty, he looked like he was trying to make himself as small as possible. He cleared his throat a couple times, before finally opening his mouth.

“Ah… sorry guys, I just realized I… needed to go prepare the lesson plan for next week. I’ll talk to you later, Shitty. Larissa. Adam and Justin,” Eric said. He pushed his way to the door, head down, walking right past a confused Jack. Once Eric was gone, Jack shot a confused and annoyed look at the foursome, before walking over himself.

“What was that all about? I needed to talk to Bittle about the lesson plan for next week.” Adam and Justin both shrugged, but Larissa shot Shitty a look, like he was supposed to know the answer. He didn’t. He really, really didn’t.

“I don’t know, man. Adam and Justin were probably the cause of it though,” Shitty said. They gave sheepish looks, before making excuses about needing to be anywhere but in this conversation. Larissa also chose to leave, leaving Jack and Shitty alone together.

“Shits, what really happened.” Jack phrased it more as a sentence than a question, but Shitty knew he still had to answer.

“Justin and Adam asked Eric what his type was. In women. I really don’t know why that set Eric off. I don’t want to pester him though, and I hope Adam and Justin learned their lesson about asking personal questions to people they don’t know all that well,” Shitty answered. Whatever it was, Shitty hoped that Eric would tell him one day. He really liked Eric, and wanted Eric to trust him.

Jack gave a small nod, like he understood just exactly what was up with Eric. Shitty wished he knew, so he could help. He just doesn’t know how.

* * *

It took a few more weeks until Eric said anything about what happened. Shitty didn’t see him much in that time, because he avoided the staff lounge and came in later in the day. Every time Jack came in to the staff lounge, he would look around, sigh, and leave again. Shitty figured it was because they had set a time and location to talk about their classes, and because Eric was dealing with  _ something _ , he wasn’t keeping up with that schedule.

Eric avoided sticking around after the staff meetings, instead putting his head down and leaving as soon as they ended, much to Shitty’s annoyance. It wasn’t like he wanted to pester Eric into talking to him, but he had enjoyed talking to him anyways.

Almost an entire month after what Shitty had dubbed The Incident, Eric came into the staff lounge, half an hour before the start of school. He sheepishly looked around the room, before landing eyes on Shitty, who had noticed him right away. He took a beeline towards him, and sat down after a nod from Shitty.

Shitty waited for Eric to start talking, believing he would do so when he was ready. He went back to reading his course book, preparing for the day ahead. He glanced at Eric occasionally, who was staring at the table the whole time. Shitty was content to sit in silence, for however long Eric needed.

Another five minutes passed, and Shitty heard rustling coming from Eric’s bag, and when he looked over to him, he could see a stack of papers in his hand.

“Are those flashcards?” Shitty asked. He knew that he had planned on Eric saying the first word, but flashcards? Come on. He had to ask. Eric, for his part, looked a bit embarrassed, but didn’t put the flashcards away either.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve had to use them…” Eric started, glancing down at the cards, playing with the edges. “I’ve been wanting to say this for a while now… and with Adam and Justin asking… And it’s not like I wouldn’t have told y’all earlier! I just… wasn’t sure what y’all would think?”

“Brah, you can tell me anything, we’re friends.”

“Right… But sometimes it’s even hard to tell friends things that... well, you always knew, but took you some time to come to terms with… and finding a good time is tricky, you know? Like, at the beginning of the school year? Is that the first impression you want to make?” Eric stumbled over a few more lines, probably written for a different situation, before Shitty knew there had to be a point to all this, and it wasn’t going to get here faster from the writing on the cards.

“Eric! Get to the point!”

“Ah… ok. I guess what I’m trying to say is… I’m gay.” Eric looked down at his now useless cards, refusing to make eye contact with Shitty. Shitty realized after a bit that this required an answer, and stumbled over himself to provide one.

“Well, hey thanks for trusting me with this! But you know, Samwell is very inclusive with all that,” Shitty said. He remembered something that might help Eric relax. “You know, I wonder if there’s something about me where people just feel safe to come out to: you’re like the sixth person. A few of them weren’t even my students, if you can believe that.” Shitty laughed, and Eric looked up finally, with a small smile on his face.

Shitty could tell that he already looked more relaxed, and much happier, even with just one person knowing. He was glad that Eric had come to him with this, and he wanted to do everything in his power to help his friend in any way he could.

“Thanks for being so supportive, Shitty… You know, coming from small town Georgia… I wasn’t always allowed to be myself. I was… things happened and I knew I had to get away. I went to school up in Boston, and basically never looked back,” Eric said. He flashed a small smile, as if the memory wasn’t all too sad. “I love my mama and daddy and all, but I’d rather just go down there on visits. Not live there, you know?”

Shitty nodded. Their experiences weren’t the same, but he understood the need to be away from your family.

“Listen, we’re friends, and I want you to know you can tell me anything. I’m glad you told me this, and I hope you know I’m always an open ear.” Shitty placed a hand on Eric’s shoulder, and Eric gave his first real smile of the morning. Shitty thought a real smile suited Eric.

They chatted for a while longer, until Jack came in. Jack did his usual look around, and seemed surprised to see Eric actually in the room. Eric for his part flashed another smile at Shitty, before excusing himself to talk to Jack. There was something in the way that Eric looked at Jack that Shitty couldn’t quite place, but he didn’t dwell on it.

That is, until Shitty looked at Larissa, and realized just how similar their expressions must look.

_ Oh. _


	3. Eric Bittle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Eric figures it out for himself, and then things happen.

Eric felt much lighter. Much happier, much freer.  He didn’t realize how much holding back had hurt him, until he couldn’t tell Justin and Adam that his type was, in fact, men. He avoided talking to anyone for an entire month, trying to decide just who he could trust enough with his biggest secret. If he told one person, he figured he could tell them all.

When he decided on Shitty, it was already like a load was lifted. Shitty was such a laid back guy, that Eric didn’t think his reaction would be visceral, and that’s basically all Eric wanted. Someone who wouldn’t react.

Shitty did exactly that: not react, and Eric, at the time, was scared and nervous just what he would say. But Eric could tell, after Shitty did say something, that he literally just didn’t think it needed a reaction at first. And Eric will be forever grateful for it. He wanted a non-reaction, and he got it.

After he told Shitty, Eric started to come to school at his normal time, and easily chatted with everyone, including Justin and Adam. They came up to him at the next staff meeting, and practically begged for forgiveness for whatever they said that made him so hurt. Eric appreciated the apology, but he wasn’t going to lie to them about it anymore. He had found some of his confidence, and he told them that he was gay.

Of course, Justin and Adam didn’t… exactly… lay off from that, instead enthusing about how Eric’s choices had now doubled, and they insisted on asking all these questions, which Eric answered, mostly because he could tell the whole thing was done in good nature.

Strangely enough, even interacting with Jack got easier, even though Jack hadn’t been involved in the whole situation, and Jack was the only teacher he had talked to in the entire time he was mulling over what to do.

Even in his classes, Eric could see his kids relax some, and he realized that he had been projecting his bad mood into his teaching, forcing his kids to tense up and be on their best behavior. Now that they could relax, they made fewer mistakes in their cooking, and their grades improved. Eric felt bad that he had affected his students, so he gave everyone a freebie extra credit quiz, that each and every one of them passed with flying colors.

In Eric’s gym classes, the kids stopped trying so hard to please. They had been pushing themselves more than they should’ve in the month that Eric had been off, but they too had relaxed, and Jack was happier by that, even if he was still confused by what happened. Eric figured he should tell Jack, but he just looked so cute confused.

And that was entirely Eric’s problem. He found that the more he hung out with Jack, talked to Jack, did anything with Jack, the more he found he  _ liked _ him. Eric felt like it was just easier to shove those thoughts deep down, and just… avoid the problem. He allowed himself the stray thought, here and there, but other than that, any thoughts of Jack in  _ that _ way were nonexistent. He hoped.

He hoped it wasn’t so obvious, that he could get away with the casual admiration he had for Jack. He didn’t think it would be that hard to hide it. And Jack seemed pretty dense about all that. Eric just resigned himself to avoiding Jack except when necessary. Which meant eating lunch alone again, but he can handle that much more than he could handle being in a casual conversation with Jack.

* * *

It took until the end of October for it to go slightly astray. Eric was using his home ec classes to bake Halloween treats, something healthy yet still delicious. He figured he would take the treats he baked and hand them out to his gym classes, regardless of whether or not Jack approved.

After his three morning classes though, Eric found he only had enough for a class and a half. So that is why he found himself baking during his lunch period. He found that the kids in the class before lunch enjoyed the treats, so he just made more of them. What he didn’t expect, however, was for Jack to come by.

“Euh, Bittle. Those… things you made for the class? I was wondering if you needed any help with them. For the next classes.” Jack seemed unsure of himself, and Eric was unsure too. He had been successful for a month of avoiding any casual time with Jack, and now here Jack was, offering to help bake with him.

“I thought you wouldn’t approve of the treats, since they didn’t have enough protein in them,” Eric said.

“Haha. Right. It’s almost Halloween, though, and the kids seemed to like them… it’s all my group talked about.” Jack brushed off the jab about protein, and Eric was a little disappointed. But, he shrugged, and offered Jack an apron.

They worked in silence, minus a few chirps and a few questions and answers about the recipe. They moved around each other in the space Eric used for cooking, careful not to bump into each other. But it was too good to last, before they did end up bumping into each other.

“Bittle, how does this look-“

“Jack let me see those-“

And suddenly, Eric was face to face with Jack’s chest. Jack’s very muscular chest. He gave an uncomfortable giggle, before backing up.

“Don’t bump into me in my own kitchen, Mr. Zimmermann. This is my space, and I won’t hesitate to remove you from it,” he joked, flinging some flour into Jack’s face. Jack laughed back, a clear sound, that Eric realized he hadn’t heard before. It was too much. Eric just stood there, staring at Jack, with a small frown.

_ Oh. _

“Bittle, hey, if there’s something on my face, you put it there.” Jack waved a hand in front of Eric’s face. Eric finally refocused and shook his head, jumping right back into making the treats.

“Right sorry. Let’s get back to work. Those look great, why don’t you put them on the tray.” He was back in full business mode, trying as hard as he could not to look at Jack. Jack, who was covered in flour. Jack, whose laugh could light up a room. Eric was so screwed.

* * *

After this incident, Eric again went back to avoiding talking to Jack except for in cases of work. It was enough for Eric to have to see him every day, he didn’t want to see him any more than that. But it was almost the end of November, which meant it was almost time for the skate unit, where they would be on separate ends of the ice in Faber.

Before then, Eric was able to get away with only seeing Jack before classes, but now he would have to see Jack during an entire class. He wasn’t sure how he would get around it. He didn’t have any idea how he was going to focus on doing his job with Jack on the other side of the room. Jack and his hockey thighs. And hockey butt. Eric thought back to the first time he met Shitty, and had to agree, several months later, that Jack did indeed have a fantastic butt.

Two weeks before the deadline to turn in the applications for which type of skating the students wanted to do, Jack made an announcement at the start of class.

“As you all know, your decision for the skate unit is due at the end of November, this month. From now until then, you can turn in your applications to either me or Bittle. Don’t worry if you don’t have experience in hockey or figure skating, that’s what we’re here to teach you. Also, don’t think you have to be a figure skater if you’re a girl, or a hockey player if you’re a boy.” He looked around, matching eyes with a few of the students. Eric figured they had asked about that point specifically. “If you have any questions about either sport, feel free to ask.”

Eric nodded at the students, shooting a grin. But he was still thinking about having to stay in the same area as Jack for a longer period of time than before.

“On the first day of the unit, y’all are to meet us at Faber. We will not be changing, so try to go straight to the rink,” Eric said. It was Jack’s turn to nod. After this announcement, Jack and Eric split the group like normal, and went to their separate areas.

* * *

Over the next two weeks, Eric received many of the applications, from some confident girls, timid boys, and vice versa. A few of the boys told Eric that they were afraid of the contact that hockey usually entailed, and a few of the girls said they were looking forward to learning actual figure skating moves.

Eric noticed that more boys than girls went to Jack with their applications, and more girls than boys came to Eric, but both sides ended up with an even mix of students from each of the classes, as if they had split them. Eric was glad of that.

The day before the deadline, almost all the applications had been turned in, with only a few stragglers. Eric was satisfied, and Jack actually looked pleased that the kids were so into it.

He said as much at their morning meeting. They had been discussing that day’s class, and some of the students, when Jack suddenly changed the subject.

“You know, I’ve been getting excited for this skate unit. Before I went to college… in the year I stopped hockey, I did some coaching of kids, and I really enjoyed it. It’s uh… why I wanted to teach, actually. But I’m looking forward to doing some more hockey.” Jack was a bit sheepish, but he looked happy, making Eric fall just a little bit more in love with him.

“I get how you feel. I haven’t skated all that much since I was on my high school’s co-ed team, and I’m looking forward to getting back on the ice. Albeit, with figure skating, which I’m definitely excited to get back to.” Eric easily smiled at Jack, who returned his own.

Eric though that it might not be so bad, to be in the same room as Jack. That is, until he remembered that Jack was straight, and any looking would just have to remain looking. He sighed, remembering just how futile this crush was.

“Hey, Bittle, what’s wrong?” Jack asked, and Eric remembered that he wasn’t alone.

“Ah, oh, um, nothing. I was just thinking about something unrelated,” he said, and he wasn’t lying. It definitely had nothing to do with the class. Jack gave him a strange look, but dropped it, thankfully. Eric wasn’t ready to start that conversation again. Especially not with Jack.

On Friday after the staff meeting, Eric caught principal Hall before he could leave, and asked him if he could come in over the weekend to Faber for some extra practice, before the skate unit started on Monday. Hall agreed, telling Eric that it was generally open to the public on weekends anyways.

At home, Eric pulled out his skates, a nice pair he had gotten a few years back so he wouldn’t have to pay the extra renter’s fee from the local rinks back by his old school. He ran a finger over the laces, thinking about the last time he had skated, the day before he had gotten the call about the job at Samwell. It had been an uneventful year, and Eric had been trying to find a school that was hiring that was larger than where he was. His old school had a graduating class of only 100, and Eric had taught only 40 kids total, and five classes. He had driven up on one of the breaks to Samwell, after learning they needed a new home ec teacher, and figured there wasn’t any harm in trying. Towards the end of the last school year, Eric went skating, not knowing that he would get the call from Samwell, asking if he was still interested in the job.

Eric set aside the skates by the door, resolving himself to get up and go to Faber early, to get a full day of skating in on Saturday. He didn’t want to mess up the one thing he said he could teach in gym. He definitely didn’t want to make a fool of himself in front of Jack.

* * *

The next morning, Eric drove to Faber, a bit earlier than he wanted. He wasn’t even sure if it was open at the time, but he had woken up so early and was really excited to get back on the ice, that he had left an hour earlier than he had intended.

In the early morning light, Faber was even more breathtaking. With the sun just barely peeking out over the horizon, the light cast through the big windows, reflected a soft ethereal light. Eric caught his breath, realizing he would finally be entering the rink he saw so often. Barely taking his eyes off the building, Eric grabbed his skate bag from the passenger side of his car, and locked his car.

Walking through the doors, Eric felt like crying for the beauty that is Faber. The soft light that filtered through was enough, so Eric decided to leave the rink lights off, preferring to skate in the natural light. The ice itself was pristine, untouched by skates since the night before.

Eric pulled his skates on, and sat there for a moment, breathing in the silence and crisp smells that Faber gave off. He stepped to the rink door, opening it, before pulling the skate guards off, and stepping on to the ice. He took a few laps, skating slowly around the ice, enjoying the moment.

Quickly though, he picked up the pace, doing some small skills, keeping his feet on the ice for the most part. He skated like this for an hour, before slowing to a stop at the bench, stretching his legs and back in preparation for the harder skills, like jumps and spins. He told himself that he would only work on the things he would be teaching, but being on the empty ice, he was itching to do some of the more difficult jumps, and maybe run through one of his more simpler routines.

He stepped back into his pace, picking up speed, skating at just the right speed with just the right edge for everything. He spent another hour doing the basics, and was surprised to see he was still alone in the rink. He thought maybe once short routine couldn’t hurt.

Skating over to the wall, he grabbed his phone from his bag, and leaned against the wall, as he pulled up Halo by Beyoncé, something he had skated to all those years ago. Putting it just loud enough so he could hear from all edges, he skated to the center of the ice and began the routine.

He was a good two minutes into it though, when he heard a door slam, startling him into stopping. Standing a bit slack jawed was Jack, his bag slipping from his shoulders. Eric wondered how long he had been standing there, but he was still embarrassed. It wasn’t like Eric was still any good. He skated over to his phone to stop the music that was still softly playing, and Jack seemed to find his footing, and began to walk to where Eric had left his own bag.

“Jack! What are you doing here? Or… How much of that did you see?” Eric remembered that Faber was open to the public on weekends, but he was still shocked to see Jack there. For some reason, he never expected Jack to come to the rink, even if it was for the same reason Eric was there for: to practice.

“Ah, well. I come in each weekend to get some skating in so I’m not rusty.” Jack rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, before bending down to slip on his hockey skates. “And uh… I maybe saw all of it? The routine at least. Sorry I interrupted you.”

Eric was definitely embarrassed. He had hoped no one would see the routine, except in grainy youtube videos from the actual competition.

“Oh. I’m out of practice so it wasn’t like it was any good… definitely not as good as when I performed it,” Eric said. He was sure he had messed up on one of the jumps that had come so easily. The spins weren’t so smooth. He forgot a transition here and there. Jack looked up at him briefly, giving him a curious look, before looking down to finish lacing his boots.

“No, no, it was good. I was… impressed,” he said. He stood up, walking to where Eric had placed his skate guards, and deposited his own neatly beside them. Eric scooted a bit down the boards, and Jack swung open the door, before stepping on the ice.

This is exactly what Eric did not want. To be alone with Jack again. He wasn’t sure he could stop himself from doing anything stupid. He wasn’t sure if he  _ wanted _ to stop himself from doing anything stupid. And that’s what scared him. The fact that he could be this close to Jack, and not know what to do with himself. Jack clearly didn’t have any qualms, and Eric was jealous of how straight he was.

“Hey, wanna do some races? See who’s faster, me or you, eh?” Jack smiled, and Eric readily smiled back. A race seemed as good an idea as any, considering that meant he could stay just a bit away from Jack. Although, Eric knew hockey players were speedy skaters. He might be the one having to keep up.

“Let’s do it.”

A few races later, and Eric had the upper hand. He lost the first one, but won the next two, and was content to gloat about it while skating a few backwards circles around Jack, who rested with his hands on his knees. Jack tried to lunge out to catch Eric, but Eric did one sweeping motion with his feet and was out of reach, and Jack lost an edge, ending up with his butt on the ice. Eric hoped Jack was dense, because even just doing this much, Eric was in love.

Jack sat on the ice for a little bit, laughing, a genuine tune. Eric stopped skating, and offered a hand to Jack, to help him up, and, although Eric was sure Jack could’ve gotten up on his own, Jack still took his hand. Jack however, had other intentions than to get up, and pulled Eric right off his skates, and Eric lay there sprawled next to a smirking Jack.

“You just had to get the last laugh, didn’t you, Mr. Zimmermann.”

“How else was I supposed to stoop to your level?”

“We can’t all be big, strong hockey players.” Eric pulled himself to his knees, brushing some of the ice from his arms. He refused to look at Jack, but he knew Jack was looking at him. He didn’t want to know with what expression. “Well, I think that’s enough skating for me. I’ve been here a few hours, and I didn’t exactly have breakfast. I’ll see you on Monday then.”

Eric stood up carefully, making sure he wouldn’t slip on the way up. Before he could get very far past Jack, he grabbed his arm.

“Wait. Do you want to grab a coffee at Annie’s? I only ever skate this long anyways, because the public comes in after this.”

Eric wasn’t sure what to make of the offer. Sure, he wanted to drink coffee with Jack, but he also didn’t know just how much more of Jack he could take. He found himself nodding anyways, and Jack pulled himself up from the grip he had on Eric’s arm. Once they were both standing and steady on their skates, they skated to where they had put their skate guards.

Eric was done packing his bag first, and he had to wait for Jack to remove his own skates. Annie’s was close enough to walk, so he figured they would go together, and there was no need for either of them to drive.

“Do you want to put your bag in your car first? I figured we’d just walk to Annie’s, and I wasn’t planning on bringing this bag along.” Jack confirmed Eric’s assumptions, and Eric nodded. Jack stood up, and the two of them walked out the door together, Eric heading to his car, and Jack heading to his. Once that was out of the way, they matched steps, and started on the short walk to Annie’s.

The weather was a bit cold, but it hadn’t snowed much yet, though Eric knew that would change in the coming days. He shoved his hands into his pocket, keeping an eye on the path ahead, and not on Jack. They walked in silence for a while, before Eric could see Annie’s ahead on the path. He wanted nothing more to get inside. He picked up his pace, and reached the door a few steps before Jack, who had an odd look on his face, but still entered through the door Eric held open just long enough for the two to enter.

“Here, I’ll get you whatever you want, why don’t you go find a place for us to sit?” Eric said, but Jack was already pulling out his wallet.

“Haha, oh, I was going to tell you to do the same. My treat. For interrupting you.” Eric eyed Jack a bit suspiciously, but still nodded, and told Jack what he wanted. He decided he wanted nothing more than to sit down, and this was a great opportunity to do so.

He sat at the corner table by the window for a few minutes, looking out on the late fall scene. He’d only been at Samwell for a few months, but it was still beautiful, no matter the weather. He didn’t think there really was any way to dampen his mood.

Jack placed a steaming mug in front of Eric, causing him to refocus on Jack, who had just come up to their table. Eric glanced down at the pumpkin spice latte, before reaching out and just holding his hands around it, and gave a smile to Jack.

“Thank you, Jack. This is just what I needed for right now.”

“I don’t know how you can drink that. It’s so sweet!” Eric glanced over to Jack’s own cup, and saw it looked to be just straight coffee.

“Well, I don’t know how you can drink  _ that _ . It tastes too much like coffee.”

“That’s the point. Because it is coffee. Unlike whatever  _ that _ is.”

The easy conversation between the two of them was a relief to Eric. Over the past several months there have been shifts in tension and companionship between the two of them, and any instance where there didn’t seem to be any strife was good. It means that they were maybe finally becoming friends. Eric really hoped that trend continued.

They talked about nothing and everything as they drank their coffees. Eric pointed out how beautiful Samwell was no matter the weather, and Jack enthusiastically agreed, mentioning offhandedly that he had a camera that he liked to carry around with him sometimes, just to take pictures that caught his eye. He sheepishly asked if Eric wanted to see some of them sometime, and the way Jack looked at him made Eric’s heart do a little jump. However, he reminded himself that there was nothing behind it, except maybe an extension of friendship. Eric still agreed, saying he’d love to see them.

The conversation moved to their classes, and discussing the progression of the skate unit. Since it was the longest unit, and took an official stop for the two weeks of winter break, they could take things a lot more slowly, and Eric wanted to make sure just how much he could teach the kids. Jack pointed out that he probably shouldn’t teach a routine, and it took a few seconds for Eric to realize that Jack was teasing him. And then took Eric a few more seconds to catch himself from falling over from the way Jack readily and easily laughed.

This was going to be a long winter.

* * *

Come Monday morning, Eric was slightly on edge. Shitty told him as much when he came in to the staff lounge, but Eric couldn’t explain it. Well, he could. More so to the point of never having taught figure skating before, and having not done all that much skating in the time between now and then. Eric was worried he wouldn’t be able to teach it the way the students could understand. He didn’t want to ruin their education because he was a bad teacher. And he definitely didn’t want to ruin their interest in the sport, since he loved it so much.

After he got through telling Shitty all that, Shitty gave a little laugh, but Eric could tell it wasn’t supposed to be mean.

“Brah, chillax. You’ll do great. Those students of yours, I know they love you as their teacher. They tell me as much. They won’t be put off by the way you teach, I’m sure of it. I think you just have to start with the basics and go from there.” Eric was grateful that Shitty was there, and that he was calm, since it offset Eric’s own worries.

Eric noticed that Shitty had said something that set off his other worries though. He never did like it much when someone talked about him and he didn’t know what they said. Sure, Shitty said that the students said that they liked him, but he couldn’t be sure. And suddenly he was worrying about  _ another _ thing about the classes for the day.

“You say they talk to you about me?” Eric kind of hated how unsure he sounded.

“Ah yeah. After you stopped coming in… you know, before you told me? I was disappointed that we were losing touch, and I kinda vented my frustrations about it to the students. The ones that had you, they told me how off you were too, and they were sympathetic. Obviously it’s all good now! But sometimes they ask how we’re doing.” Shitty rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, looking appropriately chastised.

Eric, however, was also sympathetic. He shut everyone out, regardless of how much he liked them and wanted to be friends with them. He was going through an internal conflict, but it ended up affecting the people around him more than he wanted. He was glad he had found the conviction to tell Shitty.

“Oh well, if that’s all it is. I’m not too keen on not knowing what people say ‘bout me,” Eric said. Shitty nodded, and Eric was glad he understood.

“Thanks Shitty. Again. As always. Talking to you just really calms me down.” Eric smiled, and Shitty matched it. It was a nice moment, and it really did help Eric, but he knew he would worry until that first class anyways.

* * *

By the end of his last home ec class, Eric was jittery, walking slowly to Faber. He didn’t realize Jack was walking beside him until he spoke.

“You ok there, Bittle? You look about ready to bolt,” Jack said. Eric jumped, and Jack looked apologetic. “Sorry.”

“It’s ok. I’ve just been thinking about this unit all day. What if I can’t do it? It’s all I can think about,” Eric replied. He gripped his bag strap and looked at his feet, kicking a stray patch of snow. He glanced sideways at Jack, and the expression on Jack’s face was almost enough to make him laugh. The look of intense concentration on his face as he most likely was attempting to figure out the best way to approach the subject.

“Bittle… You’re a great teacher. The kids like you, probably way more than the like me. I know you’re a good teacher. You even taught me how to bake.” Jack gave a little chuckle, and Eric quickly looked away, remembering. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

“Thanks, Jack. Somehow, that actually helped,” Eric joked. He meant it, though. In his own awkward way, Jack had calmed Eric’s nerves. Eric would think about that more later. For now, he gave a bit of a hip check to Jack, and they walked the rest of the way to Faber in companionable silence.

They were late, but since it was only the first day of the unit, it wasn’t like they were going to jump straight into the lesson plan. It was like a second syllabus day. On day one, they would determine which set of the rental skates each student would wear for the duration, and determining how much people already knew about skating. For this, the two teachers would teach the whole class.

When Jack and Eric entered, all the kids were chatting excitedly while sitting in the bleachers. Eric flashed them a smile, and a few of the students waved, to which Jack gave an awkward wave back. Eric dropped his bag on the side of the rink, before walking to the rental skate room, unlocking it with the key he had been given from Hall for the unit.

“Everyone line up in two lines, one line for the hockey unit, and one line for the figure skating unit, and when you get up here, tell me or Coach Zimmermann what size of skate you need. If you don’t know, tell us your shoe size instead.” Eric looked over the skates on the racks, before turning to the students, who were lining up. Jack came and joined him, and the passed out the skates in quick order.

“Once you’ve got your skates, please put them on, and wait in the stands for me and Bittle to join you,” Jack said.

The last few students got their skates, and Jack and Eric left the room, and Eric locked the door behind them. The two walked together to their bags, and together pulled their skates on. Eric glanced at the students who were milling around, showing their skates to each other.

“Is this the first year they’ve gotten a skate unit? I was never this excited for any unit in PE,” Eric asked, as he laced his skates. Jack followed Eric’s line of sight.

“The other gym teachers that teach the other years, they don’t know how to skate. The skate unit is only offered to seniors anyways, but this is the first year we’ve been able to do it properly. When I got hired, they told me to just slap some skates on them and let them do whatever. But now we can do it right. I think the kids know this. Some of them have siblings that I’ve taught.” Jack finished tying the laces, and stood up, walking to the door into the ice.

Eric quickly followed suit, moving to stand beside his fellow teacher. The kids noticed the two teachers, and quieted down, giving all their attention. Eric glanced at Jack, but Jack gestured for Eric to begin, seeming to be content to let Eric lead this part of the class. Eric nodded.

“Alright then. Today’s class isn’t going to be as fun as y’all want it to be, but what we want to know is how much y’all already know about skating. So today is a joint class, and from tomorrow on we will be split between the two sections.” Behind him, Jack pushed open the door, and stepped onto the ice. Eric glanced back, and decided to follow.

The two men skated to the middle of the ice, and they turned to face the class, Jack shifting his feet a little, and Eric standing with a pick in the ice.

“The way we’re testing you is your ability to stay on your feet skating from one end of the rink to the other. Obviously, if you can’t get off the boards, we’ll have to teach you to get off the wall.” Jack gestured for the students to join them on the ice.

The students all made their way to the entrance to the ice, and Eric told them to line up at the back wall. He then told them that if they knew for a fact that they couldn’t skate end to end, that they should remain on the boards by the entrance. A few students broke off from the group to do so, but the rest moved down to the starting point.

Eric moved to the boards on the center of the rink while Jack moved to the finish line, and Eric called for the students to start skating. A few pushed off with no problem, but a few couldn’t get their footing and fell over. The kids began to skate to where Jack stood, and Eric kept an eye on their form. A few of them were attempting to walk across the ice, while a few were skating well, and others had perfect technique.

After all the kids had made it to Jack’s end, Eric watched Jack tell the kids to stay, before skating over to where Eric stayed.

“Notice anything? Anyone who should join the skating group?” Jack asked after he reached Eric’s side. He leaned in close so that the students wouldn’t be able to hear them, but Eric knew that the kids were watching.

“A few. They may have been standing steady and could get across the ice, but their form wasn’t great. I think in total we’ve got ten kids to teach how to skate with decent form. A few others knew how to skate but their technique could’ve been better. Those kids, I leave for us to deal with with the rest of the group.”

“Sounds good. Shall we, then?” Jack gestured out to the class, but Eric had to pause for a moment because all he wanted was to take Jack’s hand. Eric realized he didn’t reply when Jack gave him an odd look, and he took a breath and nodded, giving a tight smile.

They skated over together to the group of students, and Eric told the students that needed the extra help to go join the students on the boards, with a reminder that it isn’t a problem that they don’t know it well, that’s what he and Jack are there for.

Jack told the rest of the students to skate around the half of the rink that they were on, and to come over and ask them if there was anything they needed. He told them that just because there wasn’t any direct supervision, that they weren’t out of sight.

With that, Jack turned and skated towards the group of students on the boards, and Eric smiled at the students, reminding them to have fun, before skating over to join Jack. The students watched their approach from the boards, some with minor apprehension, the rest with mild annoyance, probably because they had to do it in the first place.

“Alrighty then. We’re gonna start with getting y’all off those boards, and from there we’ll get y’all skating,” Eric said. It took ten minutes to accomplish getting everyone off the boards, and Eric and Jack had to help a couple people stay on their skates.

Once everyone was steady, it took the entire rest of class to make sure some of the non-skaters knew just how to keep themselves upright and in good form while skating. Eric thought about the care he and Jack would have to put into helping these skaters around the ice for the coming weeks.

The next few classes had the same amount of people needing the extra help, and Eric was thankful all the kids who didn’t need the help were well behaved and kept to themselves for the most part. He was looking forward to teaching the unit more now than he had at the beginning of the day, and he began to enjoy himself more come the middle of the second class.

Eric looked over to Jack occasionally, and found that Jack looked so much more gentle than he had before, smiling easily at all the students, easy praises when they did something well. Maybe it was because they rarely taught in the same room, but Eric never noticed how kind Jack was to the kids he taught.

Eric caught himself looking at Jack more and more, and he really hoped the kids couldn’t see it.

* * *

The next two weeks, Eric prepared his home ec classes for the final, and continued to teach his gym classes figure skating. He and Jack had agreed not to do a final in the class, making the point that it wouldn’t make sense to do a final in the middle of a unit. Instead, they would just take the extra class time.

Eric had been slowly teaching the kids in his groups the easy moves that he had learned, and to lighten the mood if they were feeling frustrated, he would tell horror stories about Russian calisthenics and other things his coach had made him do. If it brought out a smile or a laugh, he’d take it.

Occasionally, Eric would look over at what Jack’s group was doing, if his kids were just doing repetitive motions. A few times, Eric was surprised to find Jack looking back. At those times, Eric would look away quickly, and skate a loop around his kids, checking on all their work. Each time, he thanked everything that the ice made him flushed, so that no one could see his blush.

In the last week of classes, Eric had started teaching jumps to the students, nothing major. He and Jack had agreed not to teach anything too strenuous or difficult, although if they thought the kids could handle it, it was up to the individual teacher what they taught. Even if they were teaching the class together, it was still separated. On Jack’s end of the ice, he had brought in sticks and a bucket of pucks for the kids, so that they could practice stick handling with their skating. A few of the kids had told Jack ahead of time they wanted to be goalies, and he had brought goalie sticks and gloves for them.

Everyone on both ends of the ice were skating well, including the few that had been stuck to the boards on the first day. Jack and Eric had worked hard to help them, and there wasn’t a sad face on that rink, not even on the last day before break for each class.

Jack and Eric spent half of the two hour final block teaching like normal, and then they let the kids skate and do whatever they wanted. A few friend groups joined up, showing each other what they had learned in their respective sections. Hockey skaters tried to show off their speed, and figure skaters showed off their backwards skating. The two teachers stood off to the side, watching it all.

“Takes you back to those races we had, only a couple weeks ago, eh?” Jack asked, nudging Eric a little with his hip.

“Hey, now, no hip checking.” Eric bumped his hip back, and Jack gave him a genuine smile. Eric noticed a few of the kids watching them, talking amongst themselves, before they came skating over.

“Mr. Eric, Coach Z, have you guys ever raced before?” The students asked, designating one of them as their spokesperson. Eric glanced at Jack and started laughing, and Jack gave him an amused look.

“Well, yes we have. Bittle here beat me though,” Jack said. He laid a hand on Eric’s shoulder, and Eric managed to get his laughter under control. The kids looked confused though. Maybe because Eric laughed, or by the fact that Eric could beat Jack.

“Wow, really? Mr. Eric beat you? We’d love to see that.” The kids all looked like angels, but their shit-eating grins gave away whatever intentions they were trying to hide. Eric and Jack looked at each other, a silent communication, and seemed to come to the same conclusion.

“Sure, why not. It’s been a few weeks, let’s see if Coach Zimmermann here can beat me this time,” Eric said with a wink, before skating to the center of the ice. “Hey y’all. A few of you requested to see something special: a race between your two teachers. And me and Coach Zimmermann have agreed.”

A few cheers broke out, and the kids skated over to the side of the ice, leaving the entire length of the rink open for the two teachers. Jack skated over to Eric with a smirk, and they skated to one end of the ice, setting themselves up.

The excited chatter among the students hushed, and Eric was determined to win this race. He didn’t really know why, he didn’t think he had anything to prove, but maybe he wanted to prove that figure skaters can be known for their speed too.

Jack called one of the students over who had asked for the race in the first place, and asked her to be the starting call. She skated to one side, parallel to the two men, and cleared her throat.

“Ready… Set… GO!” Her voice rang out in the quiet rink, and Eric and Jack sped off. There were a few oos and ahs from the students, and Eric could see that he had a slight edge on Jack. He smirked, and skated even faster, relishing in the fact that he wasn’t top speed.

It occurred to him around the middle of the ice that they hadn’t set out terms for the race. Were they just going to the boards, or were they going back and forth? He turned his head slightly to look at Jack, intending to ask, when an arm reached out and grabbed him, stopping him in his tracks. He spun his face forward, and saw that he was pressed almost right into the boards. He hadn’t realized he’d gotten so close.

The rink was silent, as Eric breathed heavily, wide eyes staring at the glass in front of him. Jack had a death grip on Eric’s wrist, and slowly he pulled Eric away from the boards. Eric didn’t resist. Jack turned Eric to face him, concern written all over his face, and Eric gave out a shaky smile.

“I guess I won again, huh. Let’s remember to set the terms of the race before we start next time, shall we?” Eric gave a shaky laugh, and knew he would probably begin to shake all over once he was alone, but he didn’t want to show it in front of all his students.

“Bittle.” Jack looked like he wanted to say more, but instead he shook his head, and gave a small smile. “Next time.”

He turned them to face the students, some of which looked slightly traumatized, but instead of reassuring the students that everything was alright, Jack raised the hand that still held on to Eric’s wrist, pulling Eric’s arm up with it, and flashed a brilliant smile to the students.

“Eric Bittle wins the race!” Jack projects, and Eric gave a small laugh. It was one way to break the tension in the room. The students took a few more seconds to react, some laughing themselves, others cheering. Eric was glad that Jack hadn’t yelled at him. He was sure some lecture would come his way after class, but for now, he was content to stand here as the students broke into smiles.

* * *

 

“What were you thinking, Bittle? You could’ve really hurt yourself!” Jack said, almost immediately after they returned to their office in the gym. Eric knew it was coming, but he was still caught off guard by how quickly Jack reacted.

Eric didn’t respond for a while, instead going to sit at his desk, not matching eyes with Jack. He knew he couldn’t stop hiding it anymore, and he began to shake. He was determined not to cry, but he just couldn’t hold it back anymore.

“I’m so sorry Jack. I just- I was thinking about how I didn’t know if we were stopping at the boards or if we were going the whole length, and just before that I had picked up speed, and I guess it was too much.” Eric breathed out a shaky laugh, but he gripped at his elbows, trying to reduce the amount of shaking, even if he couldn’t stop it.

“Hey Bittle hey. It’s ok. I’m glad I caught you before you hit the glass. Made me push harder, but it was enough,” Jack said, coming over to rest a hand on Eric’s shoulder. It was a soothing gesture, and Eric sighed into it, without thinking much on it. He just hoped Jack would think it was due to the nerves and not because Eric was in love with him.

“Thanks Jack, for stopping me.” Eric sighed, unfolding his arms. “Let’s finish up and go home, alright?”

“Yeah. Sure.” Jack sounded a bit odd, but he pulled his hand away, moving to his own desk on the other side of the room. They sat in silence for the next 30 minutes, the only sound the tick of the clock and clack of the keyboards.

Eric finished first, and packed up his bags. Jack glanced up at him, and Eric gave him a little wave.

“Have a good break Jack. I’ll see you at the supplementary skate classes?” Eric shouldered his bag, and Jack gave a small nod. There was an odd tension in the room, but Eric tried not to think about what it meant. He turned away without looking back, and left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that summary sucked ass but Bitty figures out he likes Jack towards the beginning, then things happen towards the end. Things being of course Bitty almost breaking his nose and Jack self consciously trying to prevent that from happening.


	4. Larissa Duan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Larissa finds out, clues everyone else in, and a plan is set in motion for the spring semester.

“Jack, what’s eating you?” Larissa leaned on the back of his couch, biting into an apple. Jack had been reading the same page of his book for a solid five minutes. Larissa knew he was a slow reader, but he was also reading the last page of a chapter. She didn’t think three paragraphs would take him longer than a normal page.

Jack continued to stare blankly at his page, and Larissa bit at the inside of her cheek.

“Did something happen on the last day of classes?” She waved a hand in front of Jack’s face, and he finally looked at her. She couldn’t tell what the look was. It was the first weekend of winter break, and Jack had asked her over. Jack proceeding to basically ignore her the entire time wasn’t what Larissa expected to do.

“No… well, kind of?” Jack mulled it over a moment longer. “Yes. Yes something happened.”

Larissa waited for Jack to continue, hopping over the couch to sit beside him, taking another bite out of her apple. Their relationship was that of mutual silence, and few words. Jack seemed to be considering his words carefully.

“During the last class, me and Bittle were asked to do a race. Bittle is a speedy skater, I wasn’t able to pass him. Halfway to the other boards, he picked up some speed, but then turned his head. Afterwards found out he was going to ask whether the race was over at the boards.” Jack took a breath, and Larissa had a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach that she knew the end of the story.

“Bittle, because of his burst of speed, reached the boards a lot faster than either of us thought he would. I could see where it was going, I’d seen it enough in hockey, but Bittle didn’t have anything protecting him. I just barely caught him from hitting the boards,” Jack finished. “I pushed myself as fast as I could to grab him, and I’m glad I did.”

Larissa was glad that nothing awful happened, but she still didn’t know if that was what was affecting his attention. She wasn’t sure if what happened to Eric was all it was.

“It’s a good thing you grabbed him, but is that what your mind’s focused on right now?”

“Yeah, it is. I don’t know, maybe it’s the way Bittle looked, or something. I just can’t wrap my head around it, you know?” Jack pursed his lips, looking for all intents and purposes like a confused puppy. Larissa had never seen him quite like that before.

“Dude, it was a scary moment. For everyone, I’m sure. Maybe you’ve still got some of that adrenaline,” Larissa said. She finished her apple, moving to go throw it out.

“I don’t know… I think it was because it was Bittle?” Jack said quietly. Larissa kept her back turned to Jack, but she wasn’t sure what he meant by that. Why would it matter if it was Eric?

“You know, Jack, I think it’s good that you and Eric are getting to be better friends. I thought at first you would hate him. He didn’t seem like the type of guy you could become friends with.”

Jack hummed, but didn’t say anything else. That was fine with Larissa. It was the entire basis of their friendship. They’ll sit in companionable silence, as always, avoiding talking about the heavy stuff for as long as possible.

Jack went back to reading his book, and Larissa sat beside him, texting Shitty on her phone. While she wouldn’t talk to Jack about the heavy stuff, she had no problems talking to Shitty about it.

* * *

“Did he seem all despondent? Morose? Sighs and blank stares?” Shitty looked at her, and Larissa threw her head back on the pillows on her bed. Shitty spun around in her desk chair, and she lifted her head to give him a look, before putting her head back.

“Yes on all counts,” She said, spinning a finger around in the air. Shitty stopped his casual spinning, giving her a look. She’d been getting a lot of looks lately that she couldn’t read.

“Jack was all that? Jack? Mr. Robot? Mr. I-Never-Got-Out-Of-Hockey-Post-Game-Interview-Mode? Jack Laurent Zimmermann?” Larissa was beginning to hope that there was some point to all this. She simply nodded. “It’s gotta be love. Our Jacques is in love,” Shitty finished confidently. Larissa wasn’t so sure though. She hadn’t seen him with any girls, and the only thing he had talked about that was on his mind was what happened to Eric.

“You sure? He hasn’t mentioned anyone.”

“Are  _ you _ sure, Larissa?” Shitty jabbed a finger at her face, and she swatted it away.

“Yeah, I’m sure. When I was there yesterday he was acting all strange, like I told you, and basically the only thing he talked about that was on his mind is something that happened to Eric last day of classes.” Larissa rolled her eyes

“What happened to Eric? What do you mean?” Shitty asked. Larissa was almost surprised by how genuine he sounded. She knew they were friends, but it was refreshing to see Shitty so serious for once. She told him what Jack told her, and Shitty gave a low whistle.

“I don’t think Jack’s in love. Probably just concerned about what happened. Nothing more, nothing less,” Larissa said. Shitty gave a more devious look, and Larissa was worried that he was about to suggest something stupid.

“What if, and now just hear me out: what if, the two things are one and the same?” Larissa gave Shitty a confused look, and Shitty continued, giving a confident smirk. “Maybe just maybe that Jack is still worried about what happened to Eric, because he’s  _ in love _ with Eric?”

Larissa just stared at Shitty. She was thinking about every interaction she’s had with Jack towards the end of the semester. She also remembers every interaction she saw personally between Jack and Eric. There was that day she saw them baking together in Eric’s home ec classroom. And the day she saw them after lunch walking, laughing. Or that time she saw Jack literally leap over a snowbank to ask Eric if he wanted to grab a coffee after school. That one was the most eye opening.

_ Oh _ .

“Shitty. Shits. What do you mean.” She knew what he meant. But she wasn’t sure. There was more to what Shitty meant than what he had said.

“I mean, Eric is head over heels for Jack, and Jack seems to feel something for Eric, even if he isn’t fully aware yet. So, let’s set them up,” Shitty said. Larissa wanted to wipe that smug shiteating grin from his face. But then she thought about it. Really thought about it.

“You know what, Shitty? I knew you were going to suggest something stupid, but frankly, you might be onto something. Let’s get everyone together, and talk about it.” Shitty gave her a skeptical look, but Larissa shook her head. “I mean it.”

“Awesome! I’ll text Adam, Justin, Will, Derek, and Chris. That should be all the people we need. This is gonna be fun!” Shitty leaned over to rub a knuckle over the top of Larissa’s head. “Larissa, we need to set a plan. I doubt Jack is aware enough to do anything himself, and I think Eric is convinced Jack is straight as a whistle and any pining he’s doing is one sided.”

“Who knew Jack would like Eric though,” Larissa said. It isn’t a long shot for anyone to like Jack. Hell, even Larissa considered it. She had her eyes set on someone else, though.

“Jack’s got a type, and Eric fits it to a T. Plus, there isn’t a soul in this world who could dislike Eric. Well, not in my opinion at least,” Shitty lifted his chest, and Larissa shoved him away with a laugh.

“Fine, text the group. Let’s get together and make this plan.”

* * *

That Wednesday, the group sat in Annie’s, being as obnoxious as usual. Shitty had been really vague about why they were there, and yet here they all were. Adam and Justin were chatting about their classes, as if they didn’t talk enough about it all at home, Derek and Will were arguing, but still friendly somehow, and Chris was asking Shitty why he had called a meeting and why Jack wasn’t there because usually Jack was there and- Larissa stopped listening halfway through the sentence.

Larissa was content to watch the conversations for all of five minutes, before she got annoyed. It was time to call the meeting to order, even if Shitty was content to avoid Chris’s questions. Larissa went to the head of the table, clapping her hands.

“Listen up boys, we’ve got a mission. Two of our fellow teachers like each other- yes Chris, like that- and we’re gonna set them up, because they’re both either too dense or timid to do it themselves.” Larissa sat in her chair, gesturing to Shitty. He’s got all the info, let him tell them who and what.

“Righty then. Here’s the deets, brahs. Our pal Eric Bittle is in love with our other pal Jack Zimmermann,” Shitty said. He was in full business mode, and the guys paid complete attention to him. “And here’s the kicker: our pal Jack Zimmermann? He’s in love with our pal Eric Bittle.”

The guys started talking all at once, but Shitty held his hands out, and they quieted down.

“Our job is to get them together. Because Jack doesn’t know he’s in love, and Eric knows that  _ he’s  _ in love, but he’s not gonna do anything about it. By graduation, our two friends must get together!” There were cheers from the boys. Whatever Shitty has that makes even the most civilized rambunctious, Larissa is impressed by its power.

“We need ideas of ways to get them together. And we need all of your help,” Larissa said. She pulled a notebook out of her bag, and leaned back in her chair. She’d write everything down, no matter how stupid. It was the best way to include everyone. Even if she’d only assign the best plans.

* * *

Another twenty minutes later, and the group of goons had figured out some pretty decent plans. Larissa was surprised. She’d boiled the whole thing down to five different situations, and a month before graduation for each situation. She didn’t want to overwhelm the two guys with so much that they’d end up hating each other.

In January, Shitty would lock them in the supply closet in Faber that holds the skates. This forces Jack and Eric to talk about their similarities, and attempt to find a way out together.

In February, Adam would organize a faculty dinner between the group, on Valentine’s day. Everyone would end up dipping out, for valid reasons, and leave Jack and Eric to have dinner all by themselves.

In March, Chris had organized a camping trip. The plan was get the two in the same tent, and make sure they spent as much time together as they could make do. Make them hike together, eat together, swim together. Whatever it is, make it happen.

In April, all the senior teachers are chaperones at prom, but Justin has a plan to get Eric and Jack near the dance floor during a slow dance. Ransom also said he could find a way to get the two to dance together.

In May, as a last ditch effort, Larissa would use the end of the year joint history and art field trip to the museum. Ask Eric to come and chaperone, and make sure to get the kids help to get the two alone. If this one doesn’t work, that’s it.

There were only a couple weeks of June, and not enough time to fit any other plans. Once graduation hit, Larissa was sure that the window of opportunity to get the two together would close. Somehow, Eric didn’t seem like the type to keep a hopeless crush going for a lot more than he has already. Only, Eric’s the only one that thinks it’s a hopeless crush. Larissa is determined to get this to work.

Too bad Jack’s just about the densest person Larissa’s met. She’s seen him accidentally turn down a bunch of girls, just because he didn’t know that’s what they were intending. The few dates he  _ did _ go on were only if the girl explicitly asked him, without trying to dance around it. Larissa was afraid the plans would fall through because of how dense Jack was. Its why she’s spread it out so much.

She really hoped this plan would work


	5. Eric Bittle- January

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shitty enacts the first plan. It doesn't end well. (AKA: Plan A, Jack and Eric locked in a closet).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for anxiety and panic attacks and stuff like that.

Winter break was mostly uneventful for Eric. He tested a few recipes, and spent a quiet Christmas alone. Shitty invited him out for New Year’s, so that was a little bit more fun. It seemed more like a college student party than a high school teacher party, but Eric wasn’t going to complain.

The few times Eric saw Jack, at the extra skating classes during winter break, and briefly at Shitty’s party, they didn’t speak much. The whole almost-injury made it a much tenser relationship, again. It’s likely that it’ll be tense again starting up the next school year. Eric was frustrated by his inability to maintain even a steady friendship with Jack.

Come the first day of class in the new year, Eric was determined to try and fix it. He was fine having a one sided crush, but not a one sided friendship. That’s how, when school was going to start, Eric asked Jack to come check the skates with him. Eric knew that Jack would accept it, because he’d been complaining about the state of the skates the few casual instances they’d interacted.

After discussing the class schedule briefly, they walked over to Faber. Eric tried to make small talk, but it backfired when Jack asked how Eric’s break was. Not much, and Eric didn’t want to make his life seem sad.

Eric unlocked the door to the storage closet, and they entered the room. Jack stood, looking over the skates with a sigh, and Eric turned to stand with him.

It was only a few moments later, when the door closed behind them, causing Eric to jump. He turned towards the door with a nervous laugh, and tried to open it. But the handle wouldn’t turn. He tried to push the door open anyways, but nothing budged. Eric was growing really nervous now. He kept trying.

“It. Won’t. Open.” Eric punctuated each word with a desperate yank of the handle. Jack walked over, giving him an odd look, and gently took Eric’s hands away from the knob. He gave a careful turn of the knob, and then a push, and then a yank.. Eric watched him without breathing. Jack turned to look at Eric, with an apologetic look.

“It seems to be stuck or locked or something. Seems they didn’t put a way to get out from this end. Poor planning, eh?” Jack gave a casual chuckle, but Eric couldn’t join in. All he could think of was seventh grade and the football team and the utility closet. He knew he was shaking, but he couldn’t stop. He sat down, hard, and knew he still wasn’t breathing normally. He barely noticed Jack’s change in expression immediately to concerned.

“Hey, Bittle, you okay?” Jack kneeled down to sit next to Eric, who was staring at the closed door. Tears were streaming down Eric’s face, and he felt so small. He felt as he did when the football team locked him overnight in the utility closet because they thought he was gay. They were right, but it didn’t help. Eric ducked his head into his knees.

“Hey… hey, you need to breathe, Bittle. You’re not breathing.” Jack placed a hand on Eric’s shoulder, and Eric lifted his head. He struggled out a breath or two, Jack encouraging him the entire time, but he just couldn’t get anything out. Jack moved his hand to Eric’s back, rubbing small circles, still trying to get Eric to breathe.

Eric choked out another breath, but he shook his head. He was starting to feel a little light headed, and he couldn’t stop the tears streaming down his face. It took him a moment though to realize Jack was no longer telling him to breathe, but instead telling him a story.

“-because I was expected to be really good, I had all these expectations tossed on me. I was so young I couldn’t handle it on my own. I had some anxiety medication, and every time I felt anxious I would take one. That’s not how it was supposed to work, but it’s how I felt I could feel better. The closer and closer we got to the draft, the more anxious I would get.   
    " I think… the idea of going into the NHL was too much for me. I took too many pills one night, before the draft. I ODed, and when I woke up, I was in a hospital surrounded by my parents. They looked scared to death, but I just felt… numb. It took a few more days for me to realize what had really happened, and a few more for it to really set in. I took a year off from hockey after I finished rehab. Well, a year off from my hockey. Since I did coach those kids for a year.” Jack continued his rhythmic circles on Eric’s back, and Eric realized he was breathing more normally. It was kind of magical, and Eric was in awe. Or at least he would be if he also wasn’t still terrified.

“After I coached the kids, I realized that hockey was too stressful for me to continue into pros. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it, but I value my own life just a little more. So, as soon as the kids’ season ended, I quit hockey for good, and applied for college. I figured I’d become a teacher. It’s helped me, because I’m not stressing about if I’m good enough. I don’t have to prove myself to the kids, or anyone else. Of course, I still get recognized because of hockey, but it doesn’t cause me grief.” Jack was silent, and Eric realized his story was done. He let the silence draw out a little more, listening to his own breathing. Jack’s hand a constant movement on his back.

“When I was in seventh grade…” Jack glanced at Eric, but made no move to stop him. “The football team locked me in the utility closet. Overnight. Because they thought I was gay.” Eric let out a shaky sigh, but continued. “My daddy coached them, so I was always hanging around by the locker rooms and my daddy’s office, and one day, they just… gave me this…  _ look _ , picked me up, shoved me into the closet, and locked the door. I thought it would be for only a few minutes, or that my daddy would find I was missing, and come looking for me, but it didn’t happen.   
Of course, my daddy was eventually the one to let me out, the next morning. One of the boys fessed up. And the look on my daddy’s face when he saw me sitting there in the dark… I hadn’t moved from my spot the entire night. I don’t think I got a wink of sleep that day. I certainly didn’t go to school that day. Or that school ever again. My daddy had an offer up in Madison at a high school, and we picked up and moved right away.” It was Eric’s turn to go silent, and they sat in silence for a few more moments. Jack’s hand still a constant, Eric’s tears still flowing.

All of a sudden, Jack’s hand stopped moving, and he pulled his phone out of his pocket. He dialed a number.

“Shitty? Hey. Yeah, me and Bittle got locked in the supply closet at Faber. Could you come down with the key to unlock it? Bittle isn’t doing too well. We gotta get him out of here,” Jack said. Eric wiped at his eyes some, and after Jack hung up his phone, he went back to rubbing small circles into Eric’s back.

Five minutes later, Shitty opened the door, looking wide-eyed at Eric. Jack helped Eric up, and walked him out of the room, a hand still on his back.

“Eric, man, I’m sorry that happened to you. Are you ok?” Shitty asked. He sounded a bit guilty, but Eric didn’t dwell on it, instead he only nodded. He checked his watch and groaned.

“Oh, class starts in five minutes. I don’t have time to set up for my home ec classes.”

“Bittle, you are not teaching today. Go home. I need you to be calm. As do your students.” Jack gripped Eric’s shoulder. With a stern glance he began to walk, dragging Eric along with him. “I’ll walk you to your car. Thanks Shitty for getting us out.”

Eric looked back briefly at Shitty, and could read the guilt written all over his face. Eric wasn’t sure what Shitty had to be guilty of, but he was walked out the door, and Shitty’s face was hidden from view.

* * *

Jack put Eric and his things into Eric’s car, with strict instructions to go home. Eric complied, because he’d come to the conclusion that he wouldn’t be able to normally teach anyways. Jack also promised to get a sub to fill in for his home ec classes, and that the gym classes Jack would just handle on his own.

On his drive home, Eric began to think about what happened in the storage closet. Other than his whole freak out. He’d learned the real reason Jack stopped doing hockey. Even Shitty didn’t know the truth about Jack. And here Jack had poured himself out to Eric, just to make Eric stop panicking. And then Eric told his story, for the first time.

It was strange, being able to talk to Jack so easily about it. Eric had never told his story, and it had sounded like Jack hadn’t told his story either. Eric wondered what this would mean for their relationship as he went and crawled back into bed. He hadn’t realized how exhausted he was until he walked through the door to his apartment. He felt like he had been awake for a whole day, instead of a couple hours.

* * *

The rest of January was tame. Eric came back to school the next day, with all his students asking where he was, and the home ec classes telling him that the sub was even more confused than they were. Eric felt bad, mostly because he hadn’t left a lesson plan. Not like he would’ve had time to anyways.

In the gym classes, Jack looked at him a bit more, with barely concealed concern, but nothing else changed. The skate unit ended quietly, and Eric was able to give everyone a passing grade for it. The next unit was back to the normal split classes, and Eric was glad to not have Jack constantly looking at him. Or to have Jack in full hockey body glory standing just across the ice.

No other events like the storage closet happened, and Eric avoided it and Faber every chance he got after that. He figured he’d be more willing to go back later, but he couldn’t look at it without shaking, and it took every ounce of himself that he could muster to hide his reaction from the students during the rest of the skate unit.

Shitty avoided him for a couple weeks, and at first Eric was hurt by it, but then suddenly Shitty was his normal self, joking and swearing just as much as before. The closer to February it got, the more natural their interactions became. Eric remembered the guilt on Shitty’s face, but decided against asking, because it would only cause him grief.

And Eric was able to bond with the other teachers more, and all their teasing and interactions became completely friendly. Adam and Justin apologized for the way they had acted in the previous semester, and Eric told them that he had already long since forgiven them. It wasn’t their fault he hadn’t said anything. The friend group Eric had expanded from just Shitty (and Jack, if he dared to think it), to contain Larissa, Adam, Justin, Chris, Will, and Derek. Eric felt he belonged somewhere, finally. It was an interesting feeling.


	6. Adam Birkholtz- February

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where a Valentine's date is set up, and no, it doesn't work. (AKA: Plan B: get Jack and Eric on a date).

“Shitty, tell us again what happened.” Larissa’s voice cracked through the skype call, and Adam watched Shitty shift in his chair. It had been a few weeks since the first plan of action had gone wrong, and they were in the process of planning the next one.

“Fuck, I don’t know, man. I followed Jack and Eric down to Faber with the extra key to the storage room. I waited till they were inside and facing the skates, before going and closing the door. I locked it, and I waited. I knew Jack would call me to get them out eventually,” Shitty said. He looked uncomfortable, and it took a bit more prompting from Larissa for him to continue.

“I could tell they were trying the knob a bunch, but suddenly it stopped. I wasn’t all too worried, because our plan was for them to just… talk? And I thought that’s what they were doing! But like ten minutes later, I get the call from Jack. Says Eric wasn’t doing too well, to come get the extra key and let them out. I wait a few minutes, to make it seem like I was not sitting right there. I let them out, and Eric looks positively shaken. Whatever happened, we fucked up by putting Eric through all that.” Shitty looked at his hands, and there was silence from everyone else.

“Well, now it’s time for plan B. And hopefully neither of them have some trauma from eating a fancy dinner,” Adam said. It was a very lame and half hearted attempt at lightening the mood, but he didn’t like the idea that their plan had backfired so badly.

“Alright, Adam, remind us of plan B then,” Larissa said. All eyes were on him through the skype pictures. He relished that attention.

“Right. So February means Valentine’s Day. And Valentine’s Day means fancy dates and the like. Our plan is to propose a dinner for this friend group, that which includes our lovely pals Eric and Jack. But, we all dip out for various reasons. Better start planning those reasons though. You want them locked in prior to the date.” Adam leaned back in his chair, looking at the array of faces. Everyone seemed to be thinking of something, but the true plan wasn’t even figured out yet.

“Alright, don’t think too hard. We still have a couple weeks. Moving on, though, what happens to this friend dinner? Well, I’m glad you asked! We all duck out by calling either Eric or Jack beforehand, but not both. That’s important, because they still have to go. If they know before the dinner that it’s just going to be them, they might just not go.   
However, those of us who don’t have reasonable or, well, real plans will be hiding inside the restaurant, watching the date go down. But disguised. My plan is to do that, and Justin plans to join me.” Adam looked pointedly at Justin’s video screen, and Justin, who had been idly listening, started, then proceeded to nod. “We will watch them to make sure nothing goes wrong. And hopefully nothing will.”

“Wow, Adam, you’re taking this a lot more serious than I thought you would,” Larissa said.

“Yeah, but that was just the rundown of the basics. Plan B or Plan Birkholtz, or Operation Victory Day is going to be a goddamn success, and this is why I don’t want any of you terrible liars messing it up. So get your stories straight.” Adam was maybe planning on having a little more fun than he was implying. Even if the plan failed, he was going to milk it for all its worth.

“We are not calling it that, Adam.” Larissa gave him a look, and it was almost enough to make him back down, but it was too late for that now.

“Sorry, Larissa, I’ve already bought the walkie-talkies and given you guys nicknames.”

“I’m… afraid to ask.” Before Adam could tell her, she interrupted. “And I don’t want to know.”

“Your loss! But anyways: What’s everyone’s ideas for your plans? Shitty?”

“Ah, well. I haven’t decided yet.” Shitty sheepishly looked away from his camera, but Adam narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

“Well, let me know when you do. What about you, Larissa?”

“I’ll figure something out. You said we had a few weeks.”

“That’s true, but I don’t want you to lie. You aren’t the best at it.”

“I take offense to that.” Larissa said.

“Moving on! What about you, Derek?” Adam moved on.

“Well, you all know it’s my birthday, right?” There was a long groan from Will, but Derek ignored it, continuing, “I’m going out with a few friends.”

“Good plan. Don’t die. Chris, I’m sure you have plans with Caitlin?” Adam said.

“Yup! I’m taking her to a really nice restaurant. I’ve had the reservations for six months!”

“… Well, that’s excessive. Will, what about you?” Adam asked.

“My brother is coming to visit for that week, but it’s mostly an excuse so he can shove my niece on me so he and his wife can go out to Boston.”

“Great! Wonderful, real plans, you guys. When you tell Eric or Jack you can’t go, don’t let on you never planned on going in the first place, alright?” Adam threw up a finger gun, and flashed a shit-eating grin. There were a few evil eyes thrown his way, but he ignored him.

“Shitty, Larissa, you’ve got a week to tell me your plans. And then we’ll proceed to put out Operation Victory Day!” Larissa groaned, but there were few complaints. They ended the skype call, and Adam spun around in his desk chair.

He had a pretty good idea of what his story would be. He had plans for him and Justin to get into the restaurant with two reservations, show up a bit earlier than Jack and Eric, and watch the not-date turn into a date.

This was a fool proof plan, and Adam was excited to put it into action. There was virtually zero chance of this plan going wrong, but even if it did, Adam wasn’t going to be torn up about it. He was going to have fun either way. It was like he was planning a heist or starring in a spy movie. Like  _ James Bond _ . Or  _ Parent Trap _ . This was going to be fun.

* * *

“Hey, bro. Listen. You have any plans for Valentine’s day? A few of us are getting together for a dinner, as friends, so that no one feels left out.” Adam enjoyed setting the plan into motion the following week. A week from the start of planning, a week from the enacting of the plan.

Eric for his part was a bit startled. It was a comical expression, like he wasn’t sure if he could trust Adam, like he was being set up for something. It was comical to Adam because it was true. But obviously he wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardize this plan. He loves Jack and he loves Eric, and they love each other. Too bad they just can’t figure it out for themselves.

“Ah, sure. I wasn’t really going to do anything, but if y’all are getting together, well, don’t let me stop you. Who else is going?”

“Me, Justin, Larissa, Shitty, Will, Derek, Chris, Jack.” Adam stressed Jack just a little extra when he counted off the names on his hands. He almost smirked at the small start Eric gave, but was lucky to keep it under control. Years of mimicking actors paid off.

“Oh ok, sounds good!” Eric’s voice was a little strained, and his smile didn’t quite match his eyes, but Adam was willing to chock it up to ‘not wanting to be around the person I’m infatuated with’. Phase 1 of Operation Victory Day was complete. Phase 2 might take a bit more convincing.

It took awhile to track Jack down when he wasn’t around Eric. That man was  _ constantly _ around him, and he doubted either one realized it. But Adam managed to corner him at lunch before he went to Shitty’s class.

“Yo, Jack! Are you doing anything on Valentine’s Day? We’re getting together for a dinner,” Adam said.

“Oh, Shitty was telling me about it. I’m not sure if I can go.”

“Bro, you have to go! It wouldn’t be the same without you! Shitty and Larissa will be there, Derek, Will, and Chris, me and Justin. Oh, and Eric too.” Adam watched for any change in Jack at the mention of Eric, but if he felt something he didn’t let it show. It was a little disappointing, but just like with earlier, Adam couldn’t show it on his face.

“Alright, I’ll think about it. See you later, Adam,” Jack said. Same old hockey robot. Adam wondered for the umpteenth time whether any of the students actually enjoyed Jack’s classes. Dude could put anyone to sleep. Adam watched Jack walk off, and slowly let his grin emerge. Phase 2 was complete.

* * *

“Alright, you guys: Phases 1 and 2 are complete, and now we just need to make sure we have our plans straightened out. Shitty, Larissa, I’m expecting you both to have plans by now.” Adam looked at their video screens, and was a little surprised to see a faint flush on Shitty’s face.

“Err. Well. Yeah?” Shitty shifted in his seat, and Larissa rolled her eyes.

“Shitty asked me out,” she said bluntly. Shitty stared at his screen with his mouth open, flopping it like a fish. Adam wanted to laugh, but this was big news.

“And did you say yes?” This question came from Derek, and Shitty turned downright red. Larissa for her own part blushed a little, but took a sip from her mug instead of answering. After a few more seconds of silence, the rest of the guys caught on, and a series of cheers and comments cropped up.

“Thatta boy, Shitty!”

“Woo, Shitty and Larissa!”

“Oh, I so called it!!”

With each passing comment, Shitty looked like he was sinking further and further into the floor, and even Larissa looked like this was too much for her. As much as Adam was enjoying himself, it wouldn’t do to forget the whole plan.

“Alright, alright, you guys, settle down.” He waited a little for everyone to stop talking before continuing. “Ok, so we all have a plan. Shitty and Larissa are going on a date--finally, Chris is going on a date with his wife, Derek is going out for his birthday, Will has to babysit, and Justin and I will come up with some bullshit excuse.”

Everyone nodded, and Adam was pleased with how well everything was going. Now all that was needed was for half of them to tell Jack of their alternate plans, and half to tell Eric their alternate plans. The call ended, and Adam went to go figure out his own plan.

* * *

Over the next week, he watched in hidden amusement as the group he had dubbed Bad Liars danced around Jack and Eric, trying so hard not to ruin the plan. The confusion on their faces made the plan almost failing on multiple occasions worth it.

The closer and closer it got to Valentine’s day, the more anxious everyone got, and the more it looked like Eric would figure something out. Adam figured Chris would fold first and tell his real plan, and it was confirmed a couple days before.

Chris burst into Adam’s classroom, looking a little bit like he might cry, and Adam stopped cleaning his white board.

“Adam, I’m sorry I couldn’t keep it in anymore! I told Eric I wasn’t going to the dinner.”

“Hey, Chris, calm down. It was the whole point. You were  _ supposed _ to tell Eric. Now tell me exactly what you said.”

“Well, I didn’t want to tell the plan, of course, so I told Eric that I had forgotten I had set the reservation. Giving the excuse that I had gotten it six months ago. He seemed to believe me! But he looked really suspicious,” Chris rushed out. It took Adam a moment to piece together everything, but when he did, he gave a little laugh.

“You’ve got nothing to worry about. I’d say the start of Phase 3 began without a hitch. Good work, Chris.” He ruffled Chris’s hair, who tried to duck out of the way. But once he left, Adam could see he looked a lot more relaxed.

Over the next two days, a few more came over to tell Adam that they had told either Jack or Eric of their other plans, and by the day of, only Justin and Adam were left. Though, hopefully Eric and Jack didn’t know that. Other than Chris, Will had told Eric, and Shitty and Derek told Jack. Since Larissa was going with Shitty, she didn’t have to tell either of them. Justin planned on telling Eric, and Adam planned on telling Jack. But for them, it would be much closer to the start of the dinner.

Because it was so close, and everyone had dropped out, they all made the effort of not being in the same room as Eric and Jack all at once, so that neither one would bring up the dinner, and Adam was banking on the two of them maintaining professional conversations during school hours. No chance to let slip that no one else was coming. If Adam was wrong, he wasn’t sure what would happen, to be honest.

On Valentine’s day, everyone avoided the teacher’s lounge. Adam and Justin stayed, but Shitty left once Eric showed up, and a few others left once Jack showed up. Adam made sure to keep an eye on the two teachers’ conversation, making sure they didn’t talk about the dinner. There was a couple close calls, but Eric seemed content to avoid the subject all together when chatting with Jack.

“You know, Justin, this might just work.”

“Adam, you say that about all your plans. And about things that couldn’t possibly work. And about stuffing hard boiled eggs into your mouth. Every time you say that, it doesn’t work.”

“Hey now, don’t sell this plan short. We’ll be watching the entire time, and get to enjoy a nice dinner while hopefully watching our two friends admit they’re in love. It’ll work.” Justin gave him a look, and Adam had been friends with him long enough to know that it probably was smart to drop the conversation now, before the argument got out of hand. But he couldn’t help but get one last shot in.

“It’ll work. You’ll see.”

* * *

An hour before the dinner, Adam and Justin got together, wearing disguises. Frankly, shitty disguises, but at least Jack and Eric wouldn’t recognize them.

“Alright, bro, here’s our plan. We enter the restaurant ten minutes before the set time for the big group dinner. I’ve scoped out the restaurant beforehand, and we’ll be able to see whatever table they sit out. This does not mean they can see us however: there are booths along the wall, with full view of the rest of the restaurant. We’ll be in one of them. Then, we eat dinner and keep an eye on their dinner. Simple as that. If anything goes wrong, there isn’t much we can do about it, but at least it’ll make for an interesting story later!”

“We’re supposed to hope it works, Adam.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Don’t sweat the details, bro.”

“Bro.” Justin gave him a look, and Adam decided to drop it this time.

“Alright! Do you want to call in your plans first, or should I?”

Twenty minutes later, Adam had called Jack to tell him he couldn’t make it, because he was made to pet sit at the last minute. Justin called Eric a few minutes later, telling him his kids had started a petri dish culture that needed nightly attention. And so, the number of people going to the dinner was down to two.

Adam and Justin entered the restaurant right on schedule, taking the reservation that Adam had left in Justin’s name. The big group dinner was under Adam’s name, and he had told Jack that even though he wouldn’t be there, to just say they were for that group.

The two men sat at their table, and ordered their drinks, while Adam kept an eye on the door, to see when Eric and Jack entered. Luckily for him and Justin, their table was close to the door so that they could hear what Jack and Eric said once they realized that it was just them.

At exactly 8:00pm, the time Adam had set the reservation, Jack and Eric showed up, at almost the same time. They exchanged awkward greetings before walking up to the front desk.

“Hi, we’re here for the reservation for Adam? Originally a table of nine? Unfortunately a few of the people had to cancel, so we’re down a few,” Jack told the hostess. Adam imagined that she looked a little put out, but he couldn’t see her face.

“Of course sir! How many would it be now?” Jack turned to Eric, and Adam tried to pay attention a little more. This was probably the moment they found out it would be just the two of them.

“Eric, did you hear from anyone? I heard from Shitty, Derek, and Adam that they and Larissa couldn’t make it.”

“Oh, really? Well,  _ I _ heard from Chris, Will, and Justin that they couldn’t make it.” The two men mulled over that information for a moment, before it dawned on Eric, at least. “Oh. That means it would be just the two of us! Haha.”

“Oh, I guess it would.” Jack cleared his throat, and Adam was ready for the moment when they decided to have it just be the two of them.

“Well, maybe we should cancel the reservation all together. I hate doing that so late in the game, but there’s really no point in it just being the two of us, right?” Eric looked at Jack like he was desperate for this out, and Adam was shocked. He never saw this as an option. Justin looked at him from across the table with a smirk that screamed ‘I told you so’, and Adam made a mental note to punch him later.

“Yeah, I think it’s for the best. I guess maybe we should’ve consulted a bit better, haha. Well, see you at school tomorrow, Bittle.” Jack gave a wave, and left, and Eric waved back, before turning to the hostess.

“Sorry ma’am, looks like we’ll be cancelling the reservation. I hope it doesn’t put y’all out any,” Eric said, flashing his usual easy smile. The hostess probably smiled back, and successfully cancelled the reservation. Eric thanked her, and then left. Leaving Adam to weep over the ruins of his plan.

“I  _ told _ you that every time you said ‘it might work’ that it never works! Now look at where we are. Eating dinner in disappointment, because your plan failed. Bro, you need to figure out better plans.” Justin kicked him lightly from under the table, Adam openly showed his disappointment.

Sure the plan failed, but now he’s lost his entertainment for the rest of dinner. It was going to be a very boring meal.


	7. Eric Bittle- March

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris sets up a camping trip, in which Eric almost dies. (AKA: Plan C: Have Eric and Jack share a tent for 3 days).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter that warranted the "almost dying" tag. (well, one of the chapters). Be warned.
> 
> (sorry this chapter is so long I kinda got really into the concept I had).

Eric spent the next few days after Valentine’s day a little annoyed with himself. He probably should’ve pushed for them to still have the dinner. It wasn’t like it was going to be a  _ date _ , right? Just the two of them hanging out. At a fancy dinner. On Valentine’s day. Eric decided that it was a good thing they decided against staying.

One day, about a week after, Eric was drinking his coffee, when Chris came into the staff lounge with a bright smile on his face. Eric watched him go to Shitty and Larissa, Adam and Justin, Will and Derek, before coming over to Eric. He had something in his hand, a small stack of paper, which he thrust into Eric’s face without a word. Eric leaned around it to look at Chris, but at the same time reached to take it.

“Hi, Chris. What’s this?” He looked down at it, and found a postcard with a handwritten invitation on it. He looked back at Chris, he looked like he might burst from excitement.

“During spring break, we, the staff here at Samwell, have been approved for a camping trip! I’m handing out these invitations to everyone, and all you need to do is mark one of those boxes and mail it! I’m running the whole thing, and so I’d really like to know if you’re going, probably about two weeks before the date. Mark your calendars!” Chris bounced a bit on his toes, before moving on to the next set of teachers.

Eric knew it would be a good opportunity to bond with everyone, something that he hadn’t been able to do at the dinner, because everyone had gotten other plans. Eric knew that it was probably some sort of set up, but he didn’t know what. He would be less suspicious if it was only one or two people, but seven? That’s just really unlikely. Maybe he could ask them if it was a set up when they were all in the middle of the woods.

Jack came into the room, and Chris bounced over to him, thrusting one of the postcards in Jack’s face, and it was almost comical how Jack tried to look annoyed, even if all that came across was confusion. He gave an odd look to the room, but after noticing everyone holding the postcards, he took it from Chris.

Chris went off to find more teachers, and Jack moved to where Eric was still standing, postcard in hand.

“Every time I talk to Chris outside of class, he feels like one big ball of energy. I can’t help but feel drained from any interaction with him. But the guy’s good at his job, so why should I complain, eh?” Jack gave a soft chuckle, and Eric had to remember to keep an ‘in love with you’ look off of his face.

“Do you think you’ll go? He’s given the invitations so far in advance. I don’t usually plan my life that long,” Eric asked. He was more of a live in the moment, freak out when the moment’s passed kind of guy. He probably was going to go, but he was also probably going to forget about it come a week later.

“Oh, yeah. I go every year, but it’s usually just the few of us. I think this is the first time that it’s the whole staff. I wonder how well that’ll work.” Jack glanced around the room, at both the excitement on some faces and the confusion on others.

“Alrighty then, let’s just work on our plans for the day, okay, Jack?” Eric slipped his postcard into his bag, and really hoped he wouldn’t forget it. It wouldn’t be the first time, if he was honest with himself.

* * *

Spring break was at the end of March, and for the rest of February, Eric wondered whether or not he should go. It was camping in the woods for three days, but it was also being forced to be around Jack for three days. He felt like he might explode.

He would ask anyone he could about what he should bring, if he were to go, and the more he heard, the less inclined he was to go. He would probably still go, but he also was dreading it more than looking forward to it. Finally, pretty much on the first day of March, he sent off his postcard. He hoped he wouldn’t regret that decision.

“Hey Eric! I got your RSVP! So you’ll go? That’s great!” Chris bounced up to him a few days later, and proceeded to babble about who was going and who couldn’t make it, and how an official list of supplies would be sent out later, and how everyone was going to have so much fun. Eric could understand what Jack meant about finding Chris emotionally draining. Eric loved the guy, but  _ man, _ did he want to go take a nap right about now.

“Hey, man! Any idea if you’re bringing some of your fucking amazing baked goods? I’ve been dying for another slice of your pies, bro.” Shitty slung an arm around Eric’s shoulders, efficiently interrupting Chris, and although it was another character, he was grateful for the escape.

“Oh, I should, shouldn’t I! Hey, Chris, let me know how many people are going and what food allergies they’ve got, so I can bake enough pies for everyone!” Eric flashed a smile at Chris, who gave his own smile.

“Will do, Eric! See ya, Shitty!” Chris gave an odd little salute, before bouncing off. Eric’s shoulders immediately sagged, and he sighed in relief.

“Thanks, Shitty. I thought I was gonna fade away from all the energy Chris was absorbing.”

No problem, brah. When he gets like that, we all need saving. Anyhooow, so you’re going on the trip? That’s great! It’ll be fun to get to know you better. Oh, but you’ll have to share a tent with someone,” Shitty said. There was something about the way he said it, but Eric didn’t want to dwell on the implications.

“That shouldn’t be a problem! You know, it’s been awhile since I went camping. I’m looking forward to it.” Eric and Shitty continued to discuss the camping trip until Jack showed up, and Eric broke off to go discuss the class plans with Jack. He looked over to see Shitty and a few others chatting, glancing every so often at the two of them. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, and frankly that was a sad revelation. His friends stared often enough at him and another teacher for it to be normal.

Eric sighed, but dragged himself back to the conversation at hand. Jack gave him a questioning look, but Eric simply shook his head. No point dwelling on something he didn’t understand.

* * *

True to his word, Eric received a list of supplies to bring, and a list of food allergies, from Chris about a week before the trip. Eric counted about 15 teachers going, including himself, and sighed at the amount of baking he would have to do. Not that he was complaining, but the fact that he also had to pack meant he was going to be procrastinating. It was sad, really. But he took it as a fact of life, and began to compile a shopping list.

It took him awhile to decide on baking mini pies for everyone, finding it easier to do that than to make a normal set of pies and risk cross contaminating and causing an allergic reaction, thus ruining the camping trip. Eric may have spent an hour freaking out about that. Not like he was going to tell anyone, though.

He forced himself to pack his duffle bag, leaving the mini pies for the last day before the trip. This way, they would be fresher and taste better. And he would be packed in time. Which was arguably the more important part of it all.

The rest of the week, Eric packed, marking each thing off the list of supplies Chris had given him. Finally, he was done packing, and he started immediately on baking the pies. A few blueberry, a maple crusted apple, a couple peach, a few chocolate pecan, a couple different types of meringue, a couple strawberry creams, and a few more. Eric ended up with 14 different pies for 14 different people. Considering that the camping trip started tomorrow, Eric was proud that he had finished all his packing and all his baking the night before.

* * *

The Samwell teaching staff arrived at the campsite a quarter past two in the afternoon. Eric had passed out the pies on the bus that had been acquired, and he was only minorly horrified by the way the pies disappeared only 20 minutes afterwards. There was still an hour left on the ride over.

Eric stretched, breathing in the fresh air. It was crisp and smelled of nature, and Eric wasn’t sure he liked that all that much. Sure, he hadn’t been camping in a while for many reasons, but he also hadn’t been camping in the woods before. He wasn’t sure how well he’d survive three days in the wilderness.

“Alright, Samwell teaching staff! I’ve got your tent assignments. We have six tents, so to make it fair for everyone, we set it up beforehand,” Chris said. The tents were stacked behind him, and he picked one up. “First tent: Me, Will, and Derek. Second tent: Adam, Justin, Shitty. Third tent: Tony, Connor, Johnson. Fourth tent: Ollie and Pacer. Fifth tent: Larissa and Ford. And sixth tent: Jack and Eric.”

Each tent was handed off to one of the people in the group, but Eric just stood there, as Jack went and retrieved their tent. Eric wasn’t sure he heard right, but there wasn’t anyone else. He was going to be staying in a tent with Jack. For three days. Eric was definitely sure he wouldn’t survive this time.

“Bittle? Hey, Bittle, what’s wrong? We should set up our tent as quick as possible.” Eric started to find Jack’s face close to his own. He also realized he had zoned out, and had completely missed Jack retrieving their tent then walking over to stand by Eric. A long three days indeed.

“Sorry, Jack. Just… thinkin’. Where do you want to set up the tent?” Eric purposefully turned away from Jack with his hands on his hips, looking around the campsite. There was a nice space near the mouth to the woods, and Eric pointed to it. “Why not over there?”

Jack followed his hand with his eyes, and seemed to be surveying the area for a bit. “Yeah, sure, looks good. Let’s go.”

They moved to the spot and Eric looked back to where everyone else was setting up their tent. Larissa’s tent was closest, on the other end of the mouth into the woods, so at least Jack and Eric wouldn’t be so secluded.

It took everyone about an hour to set up the tents, a few longer than others, and by the time they were all done, it was too dark to go out into the woods alone. Most people were too tired to go out anyways, so instead they just set up for dinner and hung out around the campfire for awhile.

It looked like it was about to rain, Eric was worried that he’d get rained on. He didn’t like the feeling of being damp, and it’s very hard to remain dry in the woods after being rained on. After he ate his dinner, he brushed the crumbs off into the fire to prevent wildlife in the camp, and turned to Jack.

“I’m gonna go into the tent. It looks like it might rain, so I want to get out of it as quick as possible. Preferably before it starts.”

“Yeah, makes sense. Well, I’ll see you later.” Jack gave a little wave, and Eric went to their tent. The tent was relatively big, perfectly fine to hold more than two full grown men, but Eric still set his sleeping bag on the far end of the tent, to make sure he wouldn’t accidentally attempt to spoon Jack in the middle of the night. That was a very real fear that Eric had.

He put his duffle bag beside where his head would lie, making sure it would block his eventual view of Jack. He was trying very hard to make sleeping in the same tent as the guy he had a crush on not as bad as it could be. For the final touch on his ‘bed’, Eric laid out Senior Bunny, making sure to hide him from view as well.

Not for the first time when camping, Eric wished he had access to the internet. Eric pulled out the book he had brought, and set up the lantern to read by. It wasn’t the most interesting read, but it was more interesting than doing nothing.

A few minutes later, Eric heard the telltale rumble of thunder, and he looked at the roof of the tent in worry. They had a rain shield, but he’d had bad experiences camping, even with rain shields. Jack popped his head into the tent, before pulling the rest of his body in, kneeling at the entrance in order to set up his side of the tent. Eric noticed that he put his sleeping bag a bit farther away from the edge, and a bit closer to Eric.

“Hey, Bittle. You might want to come off the edge a bit. Rain has a bad habit of soaking through around the bottom,” Jack said. Eric considered it, but he knew it was worse to be closer to Jack.

“Oh, no, I’m fine. We’ve got that rain shield! It covers the whole tent.” Eric patted the side of the tent, and really hoped it was true. Jack gave him an odd look, and Eric thought he could read a bit of hurt in it.

“Chris says he wants to do a group hike tomorrow, so we should turn in early.” Jack crawled into his sleeping bag, propping his head up so he could see Eric over their duffle bags. Eric closed his book, slipping it into his own bag.

“Oh, okay. I’ll turn the lantern off. Good night, Jack.”

“Good night, Bittle.”

It was a few moments later, after Eric had turned the lantern off, when he heard the rhythmic breathing coming from Jack. Eric laid down, facing in Jack’s direction, and allowed Jack’s even breathing to lull him to sleep.

* * *

Eric woke up in the morning a bit damp, but he expected it. It was a fact of life in the woods to wake up a bit damp. It looked like the rain shield had held, and Eric changed quickly, making sure Jack was still asleep. He didn’t want any more awkward moments between them.

He pushed out into the campsite, going to the campfire to start breakfast. Even in the middle of the woods, he wasn’t about to let his friends eat subpar cooking. A few of his fellow teachers were poking their heads out, and he turned them away as they offered help. He was cooking for them, and they shouldn’t have to work for it.

He cooked bacon and eggs, and a pot of oatmeal, large enough to feed all 15 campers. The smell wafted around the campsite, and several bleary eyed heads popped out, a few popping back in, Eric assumed to change. Jack came out of their tent with a frown on his face. Eric assumed he just wakes up grumpy. He shook his head, trying to not think about Jack waking up in the morning. The last few days of this camping trip, he was determined to wake up first.

“Hey, Eric! You made breakfast all by yourself?” Chris came out of his tent, decidedly a lot more awake than everyone else. It must be his personality.

“Oh, yeah. I didn’t want to make anyone work to eat,” Eric said. He poked at the eggs a little, turned a piece of bacon, before turning to the expectant campers. “Alright, y’all, dig in! There’s plenty for everyone!”

Somehow, everyone managed to grab a plate in a civilized manner, with only minor pushing and shoving. Jack was last in line, though Eric put himself behind him, even if he was still sitting at the campfire. He may have said there was plenty, but knowing everyone here, he might have to cook more before the end of it.

Eric ate by himself, keeping an eye on the fire and the rest of the campers. Everyone had broken off into little groups: Chris, Will, and Derek, Tony, Connor, and Ford, Larissa, Shitty, and Jack, Adam, Justin, and Johnson, Ollie and Pacer. Even though Eric knew all of them, sometimes he didn’t think he  _ knew _ any of them. No one came up to him while they ate.

But, once everyone finished their breakfasts, Jack collected the plates to throw them out, and Chris set up the portable coffee machine for everyone to have coffee. Eric hadn’t told them to do it, they just did. Eric hadn’t wanted help for breakfast, but he also hadn’t wanted to do everything all by himself. He knew it was a contradiction, but it might stem from how the help came: he didn’t want people to ask if they could help, he just wanted people to help.

He accepted a cup of coffee from Chris, and handed his plate over to Jack. Eric finished his coffee, before cleaning up the leftovers, however little there was. He set the cooking supplies inside their sealed container, so that the wildlife couldn’t get to the food remnants, and promised himself he would clean it later.

“Everyone done with their breakfast? Good! We’re going on a hike. But we’re going to divide ourselves into groups of three. However, we’ve got assigned groups! So that we can all get to know more people.” Chris gave an odd look to Eric, a smile never leaving his face. Before Eric could read into it more, Chris moved on. “The groups are as follows: Tony, Eric, and me. Adam, Jack, and Connor. Pacer, Shitty, and Ford. Larissa, Will, and Johnson. And Derek, Justin, and Ollie.”

The groups moved together, Chris and Tony moving to join Eric at the campfire. Chris fired off a quick instruction to the rest of the group to be back before nightfall, before turning back to his group. He pulled out a map from his bag, and the three of them crowded around it.

“I was thinking we can go all the way to the river over here, then walk along it for a bit, then return to the camp on the other side, like this.” He traced the route with his finger. Eric figured it was a sensible amount. It would only take them a few hours, and he didn’t really want to hike the whole day away.

“How long would it take?” Tony asked. He was always asking questions, sometimes sensible, sometimes unusual. This one fell more under sensible, but his next one made little sense to Eric. “Would we see any otters?”

“There aren’t any otters in this forest, Tony.” Chris spoke like he had dealt with Tony’s weird questions all his life, which Eric appreciated. He folded up the map, clapping his hands together. It didn’t escape Eric that Chris hadn’t answered Tony’s first question, which he found a little strange.

“Alright, gentlemen! Let’s get this show on the road!”

“Have you done this before?”

“Every year Tony.”

“Are you sure we won’t see any otters?”

“Shut up, Tony.” Chris sighed, and Eric stifled a laugh. He took back his earlier thought about Chris being able to handle Tony’s questions a bit better.

They moved to the mouth of the woods, where Eric and Jack had their tent set up. They moved at a nice pace, and for about an hour they walked in silence. Well, as silent as they could, with Tony asking questions every so often. Sometimes they fell under the sensible category, though Eric still didn’t understand them. He even asked once about a specific bird call. Eric wasn’t a nature person, so all birds sounded the same to him, but Chris and Tony had a small argument about a specific bird. Eric started to want to go back to the camp.

It took them another hour or so to reach the river. They took a short break, sitting by the edge of the water. Eric was splashing his face when he heard a movement on the other side, which was quickly followed by familiar voices. He rocked back on his heels and looked across.

“—I told you to look at the map, Adam. We went too far, now we’ve got to find a better way back.”

“Shut it, Connor. I didn’t lead us too far. You just didn’t like crossing the river the first time.”

“How did we even manage to find the river the first time! It hasn’t even been all that long since we left the camp.”

“Hey, calm down you two. I can hear the river ahead. We’ll just cross it again, and walk back to camp.” 

“Jack, what would we do without you. No seriously, without you, we’d be hopelessly lost and awfully soaked.” Adam came into view, wiping his brow dramatically, completely unserious. The three of them stepped out with annoyed looks on their faces, which quickly turned to surprise at the sight of the others.

Chris stood up quickly from where he was sitting by the river’s edge next to Eric, accidentally bumping into him. Before Eric could catch himself, he toppled over into the river, which was a lot deeper than he thought it was. He immediately sank head first to the bottom of the river, pushing against the bottom with his hands.

He was almost at the surface by himself when a hand reached under his armpit and pulled him up the rest of the way. Eric leaned into the shoulder, coughing. He opened his eyes to see Jack staring down at him, and he couldn’t help the blush that spread across his cheeks.

Jack was also soaked head to toe, having jumped into the river after Eric. Eric found out later that it was unprompted, that Jack had done it before anyone else could react. The two of them sat dripping wet next to the river bank while Chris flitted between them in worry.

“We’ll have to head back right away to the camp to get you two dried off. And, oh my god, am I sorry I knocked you in, Eric! I was surprised to see them, I didn’t even see you there. I’m a terrible friend. I’m so sorry that we have to end the hike like this!” He was going to walk himself into a rut, and Eric was about ready to tell them to keep going when Jack beat him to it.

“Hey, why don’t you four keep going? I’m sure me and Eric can find our way back to our tent, all on our own.” Jack placed a wet hand on Chris’s shoulder, effectively stopping him in his tracks. Chris looked down at his feet, before looking over to where Tony and Connor were lazily chatting, and where Adam twiddled his fingers back to the three of them. Finally, he looked back at Jack and Eric.

“Alright, but be careful! I want to see you back at the camp by the time we get back. I’m sorry again, Eric.”

“It’s really okay, Chris. I don’t much like hiking anyways.” Eric flashed a smile at Chris, trying to force his teeth from chattering. The river’s water was colder than he expected, and as the wind blew through, he realized how cold he was.

The four of them went off again, kicked into gear by Adam before Chris could apologize yet again. They disappeared around a bend in the river, and then Jack and Eric were alone. Eric had started to shiver, crossing his arms over his chest. He was ruefully aware that Jack looked unaffected by the cold water, while Eric couldn’t stop shaking.

Jack didn’t seem to notice, looking back the way Eric had come before turning to face Eric.

“Do you think you know the way back from here? Chris said we each have a map in our bags, and luckily ours are dry,” he said.

Eric tried to nod, but his teeth started to chatter. Was he really supposed to be this cold? He sat down on the ground abruptly, trying to conserve what little body heat he had left. It wasn’t working. He couldn’t feel his face, his hands, his feet. He couldn’t feel the tears falling down his face, but he saw them land on his hands. It was almost funny how they were probably still the same hot tears, but he couldn’t feel them.

“Hey—Bittle. Are you ok?” Jack reached out a hand to place on Eric’s shoulder, but pulled it back almost immediately. “God, you’re freezing! We’ve gotta get you out of here. Do you think you can walk?”

Eric shook his head. He didn’t think he could do anything, right now. He wasn’t even sure if he could unwrap himself. A few seconds later, he didn’t get the chance to figure out, because Jack was picking him up, bridal style. Eric would’ve been mortified if he wasn’t so cold. Jack had already put both packs on his back, and they began the two-hour journey back to camp.

About thirty minutes in, Eric could feel his eyes droop. He had stopped feeling cold. Or more to the point, he didn’t feel any colder. But he did feel more tired. He pressed his face into Jack’s damp shoulder, closing his eyes. Maybe he’d get a few moments of sleep.

“Hey… hey, Bittle. Open your eyes. I need you to keep your eyes open, please.” Jack’s voice was tinged with fear, and Eric opened his eyes. He didn’t want to make Jack sad. That wouldn’t be right. “Hey, let’s have a chat, okay? It’s a bit too quiet here for me.”

“Mmk.” Eric looked up at Jack’s face, staring at the line of his jaw and the way it clenched and unclenched. “What d’you wanna talk ‘bout?”

“How about… tell me about your family. I’ll tell you about mine in exchange.” Jack’s voice was soft. Still mingled with that fear Eric had heard earlier, but it was much more subtle.

“Mm alright. My mama and moomaw taught me how to bake back when I was young. My dad was the football coach—oh, but you already knew that.” Eric rambled on, answering Jack’s questions if he stopped, talking about his family, sharing more than he thought he ever would about himself. Eric was beginning to get annoyed by all the questions. He was tired and cold and wanted to go to sleep.

He said as much, however long later, after exhausting every story. There might be a few more left, but Eric wasn’t sure Jack could handle the Jam Feud quite yet.

“Eric, you absolutely can’t fall asleep until we get you dried off and into dry clothes, okay?” Jack’s voice had an undertone of panic, and all these feelings coming from Jack were starting to bother Eric. What was wrong with taking a little nap?

“Hey… you promised to tell me about your family, Jack. I want to know.” Eric puffed a breath from his mouth, pouting. Jack gave a soft chuckle under his breath.

“Maybe once we get you near a campfire, eh? My life story isn’t as interesting as yours.” Jack squeezed his hand that sat under Eric’s shoulder, pulling him a little closer. Eric was too tired to object, and he couldn’t seem to move his arms to push Jack away.

* * *

They reached the camp a little while later, and Jack pulled a towel from the bus, starting to towel dry Eric’s skin. Eric allowed him too, but pushed him away when Jack moved to help take off his clothes. He crawled into their tent, stripping away the wet clothes into a messy pile. He used the towel to dry the now exposed area, shivering all the while, before pulling on a new set of clothes, squirming at the feeling they created against his damp skin.

He exited the tent to see Jack had lit the fire, and Eric felt drawn by the heat. He sat down on the same log he used for cooking, and Jack draped a blanket over his shoulders.

“I’m going to go change too, ok Eric? Try not to fall asleep by the fire. You’ll get dirt all over you.” Jack gave a light poke to Eric’s cheek, before moving to their tent. Eric pulled the blanket tight around his shoulders, staring into the flames. The warmth of everything washed over him, but Jack’s words bounced around his head, so he forced himself awake. He didn’t want to change again.

A little while later, Jack exited the tent dressed in dry clothes, and sat next to Eric on the log. He pulled one end of the blanket around his own shoulders, and they sat like that, shoulder to shoulder, in silence, listened to the crackle of the flames.

After a while, Jack started talking about his family, his mom, his dad, his Uncle Wayne. Eric leaned his head against Jack’s shoulder, letting Jack’s soft accent wash over him, lulling him into a soft sleep.

Eric woke up a little while later, the blanket still wrapped around him and Jack. He noticed that everyone else was there now too, and that the sun had started to dip below the trees. Jack and Shitty had been talking about what had happened, and when Eric lifted his head from Jack’s shoulder, they turned to him.

“Hey, Eric, you alright? Jack was just telling me how you fell into the river. That must’ve been awful! Glad he was here to help you.” Shitty reached over and rubbed a hand through Eric’s hair, giving him a smile. Eric smiled back, and found that he wasn’t as cold anymore.

“I’m much better now, Shitty. Thanks to Jack. I don’t know what I would have done without him, to be honest.” He nudged Jack’s shoulder with his own, and Jack gave a small nudge back.

“That’s good to hear. Great even! Why don’t you move so someone can start on dinner? We’ll make sure you’re first in line.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that, Shitty. I don’t need special treatment.”

“Don’t worry about it, brah. You made us breakfast this morning, and were the last to eat. You should be first, this time ‘round.” Shitty flashed a bright smile and Jack nodded beside him.

“Oh. Well. If you insist, then. I think I’m going to go back to my tent anyways.” Eric yawned, but figured he’d just read his book until dinner was ready. He wondered how long he had slept before now. He hadn’t noticed what time it was, or where the sun was.

“I think I’ll go over too. Find a way to hang our clothes up to dry. See you later, Shits.”

“See ya, Jacky boy. I’ll let you both know when it’s all done!” Jack stood up, pulling Eric along with him. He kept the blanket wrapped around both their shoulders, and they walked together, matching steps to keep the blanket on. Eric tried to keep the blush from his face, but being pressed into Jack’s side made it hard to think of anything else.

He was glad when they reached their tent and slipped inside, since it meant they had to break apart. Jack let him take the blanket, and Eric cocooned himself, leaving his arms and face free, while grabbing his book and turning on the lantern.

They sat like that in silence Jack by the entrance, wringing out their clothes, Eric reading his book. Every so often, Eric would glance at Jack. Nothing about today had helped his crush any, if anything making it worse. At this point, Eric wasn’t sure if Jack couldn’t tell. It was like he was shooting love out of every pore at Jack.

Jack glanced over at him, and Eric quickly looked back at his book, like it was the most interesting thing in the world. He refused to look at Jack for the rest of the time they were waiting for dinner. Eric was glad when Shitty popped his head in, telling Eric to come get his plate. He unwrapped himself, and pushed past Jack back towards the campfire.

“So what have y’all made?” Eric looked towards the campfire where Larissa was sitting beside the fire, tending to the food.

“Larissa made us a stew. Who knew she could cook?” Shitty glanced at her, and Eric stifled a laugh. In part because it was rude to laugh at love, and in another because Eric probably had the same look when looking at Jack.

“Oh! I forgot to clean the dishes from breakfast! I meant to do that before dinner—“

“Brah, relax. There’s no way we were going to make you do any work after what happened.” Shitty wrapped a hand around Eric’s shoulder, giving it a light squeeze, as they made their way over to the fire.

The stew was delicious, and it effectively chased the last of the cold from his bones. The air around him had gotten colder the later it got, so he appreciated being warmed up from the inside. Jack sat beside him with his own bowl. Eric had been confused when Jack had come over, but he didn’t object to it. They ate in silence, but it was a comfortable silence.

By the time dinner was finished, it had begun to snow lightly. Unusual for late march, but not unheard of. Eric sat there for as long as he dared, before dealing with his dishes, and excusing himself to his tent. He wasn’t quite used to snow, having only gone through the one winter.

He cocooned himself again, setting himself up to keep reading his book, but the instant he lay back his eyes started to close. No harm in sleeping early.

* * *

Eric woke up to complete silence. Well, silence past Jack’s soft breathing from beside him. He got dressed, and unzipped the tent. Only to let a pile of snow fall in. He looked out into the once clear campsite to find it covered in snow.

He sat there a few moments, staring out into the white expanse. He barely registered the cold air blowing into the tent, until Jack stirred behind him, sitting up.

“Bittle, what are you doing? Why’re you just sitting there?” He rubbed his eyes, looking past Eric. “Is that… snow?”

“Apparently it snowed a lot last night.” Eric turned to face Jack, crossing his arms and gripping at the edge of his shirt. It suddenly seemed insufficient.

Jack gently pulled Eric away from the mouth to the tent, and poked his head out. He pulled his head back in, zipped the tent back up, before quickly getting dressed, and pulling an extra shirt from his bag.

“Here, I don’t want you getting cold again.” He offered the shirt to Eric, who took it after a moment’s hesitation. He was already getting cold, and even thinking about the day before made him shiver. Jack waited for him to put it on, before unzipping the tent again. Eric found that Jack’s shirt was warm.

“Start packing your things, Bittle. I think we won’t stay much longer, with everything covered in snow,” Jack said, before stepping out into the snow. Eric diligently folded his clothes, grimacing when he touched the wet clothes from the day before.

When he finished, he stepped out of the tent, to find Jack mid-argument with Shitty and Chris. He walked closer, until he could hear what they said.

“---can’t even get to the campfire, how are we going to eat, Shits?” Jack pointed behind him at where Eric figured the campfire was.

“We can clear it out! There’s no reason to cancel the trip because of a little snow.”

“I’ve been planning this for months! A little snow never hurt anyone anyways.” Chris pouted at Jack, who glared back stubbornly.

“We can’t do anything in the snow! We aren’t prepared for it.” He crossed his arms, and Eric could see the height difference between the three of them. Even sunk down a half foot in snow.

“There’s plenty to do in the snow!”

“Snowball fights.”

“Snowmen.”

“Snow angels.”

“Freezing our feet off due to our insufficient shoes.” Jack huffed out a breath that fogged the air. He had a point, as Eric could already feel the snow seeping into his already damp boots. They hadn’t dried off from their dip in the river.

Speaking of his dip in the river, Eric knew something that could shut the argument down, in Jack’s favour. He marched the rest of the way up to them, pulling his feet every step, and keeping his arms crossed over his chest, hands shoved in the folds.

“Gentlemen, if I can interject: y’all can play in the snow all you want, but I would rather not almost die from the cold again, thank you very much. I think I’ll stay on the bus if we’re gonna be stayin’.” Eric tried to be as imposing as possible, despite being several inches shorter than everyone else. He didn’t miss the gleam of amusement in Jack’s eyes, or the guilt in Chris’s, or the concern in Shitty’s.

“We don’t want Bittle to freeze again, right, Chris?” Jack could barely hide the smugness in his voice, but Chris could probably guess it wasn’t meant to be at Eric’s expense. Or he didn’t care, since he was the reason Eric had to say ‘again’.

“Alright, I’ll tell everyone to start packing. Eric, if you’re all done, you can wait on the bus. I really don’t want you freezing to death.” Chris sighed and turned around, and Shitty gave a grunt before turning back to his tent.

Jack turned to Eric, and Eric had to hold back a laugh because the smugness on Jack’s face immediately had been replaced with remorse.

“Sorry I used your situation to my advantage. I had been trying to get the rest of the trip cancelled for your sake without using you as an excuse, but you gave me the opportunity.” He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, and if Eric had worse impulse control he’d kiss him. Instead, he gave a small chuckle.

“Hey, no worries. You seemed to be on the losing end of the argument and needed some help anyways.” Jack looked at him in shock, and Eric laughed again. “Oh, don’t worry your pretty little head, I didn’t lie. I really don’t wanna be stuck in this snow. I’m gonna grab my things and move to the bus. I can help you take down the tent if you want, though.”

“Oh, ah, no, it’s fine, Bittle. Go ahead and stay on the bus,” Jack said. He still seemed shocked, but fell into step beside Eric as they moved back to their tent. Eric grabbed his things, and Jack began to pack his.

He gave a little wave and went back to the bus, noticing how everyone else was grumbling and packing their things. Chris had opened the bus, and Eric moved to where he had sat on the way over, placing his stuff on the seat next to him.

He wiped the window off, and watched as slowly but surely the camp got torn down and packed onto the bus. Once everyone was back on the bus, they pulled away in silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want a clear picture of the river, I don't have one for you. This whole forest is made up. But try to imagine a wide river that is so clear you can see the bottom, and rocks scattered around on the banks and also across (like a natural bridge). Bitty was sitting on one of these rocks (read: squatting) and so he fell a little farther when going in. Let me know if you need more clarification, I know it's not the greatest picture.


	8. Justin Oluransi- April

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prom is ruined for everybody. (AKA: Plan D: Get Jack and Eric to slow dance at prom).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter that warranted the alcohol abuse tag! Be warned!

“You know, there was nothing you could do, Chris. A freak snow storm at the end of March? No one could’ve seen that coming,” Larissa said. Chris sighed through the skype call, long and drawn out.

“I meant to check the weather before we left! I really did! But I just got so busy with planning and dealing with all the paperwork and making sure I was all packed and I just never found the time!” Chris threw his head into his hands.

“Hey, calm down, Chris. It’s not like you could’ve seen it all coming? Like, brah, it was an accident and a freak snowstorm,” Shitty said. Chris let out a shout, burying his head further into his hands. Shitty took in a quick intake of breath. “I’m sorry, I know it wasn’t your fault that Eric fell into the river.”

“Alright, alright, let’s stop talking about this. March was a flop, time to do April. Justin, that was your plan, right?” Adam sounded exasperated, but from what Justin knew of him, it was more to do with the fact that he didn’t like dealing with emotions in other people.

“Yeah. Since the prom is coming up in a few days, and we’re supposed to be chaperones, including Jack and Eric, my idea is to get the kids on our side and to help us shove the two of them together during a slow dance. Then, push them closer together, then they’re kissing and together. Done and done.” Justin leaned back in his desk chair, looking at his laptop. He had a spreadsheet set up, something he’d been working on since January.

“A foolproof plan. And we know how dense our two friends are.” There were a few nods, but it wasn’t something that needed affirmation. It’s been three months. If they haven’t figured out by now that they’re in love with each other, it’s going to be a lot harder to make them figure it out.

Justin was confident that he could get his students to help. A bunch of seniors who had been slowly watching their teachers fall in love with each other? There’s no way they would disagree with their plan to get them together. The fact that they hadn’t tried to involve the students before could also be a reason each of the previous plans failed.

“Alright, seems you’ve got it all figured out. Need any help from us?” Larissa asked.

“No, the students are probably all I need. Feel free to mention the plan to your kids too, if you want. Oh, yeah, and at the dance, make sure that nothing goes wrong that would push them away from each other at any point.” Justin tapped his chin, thinking. Other than those two things, he was confident he could do everything on his own.

“Cool. Then let’s get ready for prom, then.” Larissa waved, before signing off. Everyone else followed her lead, until the call was ended and Justin was left alone with his spreadsheet, and the hope it wasn’t all just hubris.

* * *

The next few weeks, Justin made every effort to make prom a perfect success. He got a suit, found out what both Eric and Jack were wearing --and made sure Jack had something a lot more attractive and well fitting than his proposed formal Burger King robber outfit-- made sure to tell his students.

Telling his students was an interesting affair. About a week or so before prom, he ended class a little early, and stopped his students from leaving.

“Hey, wait a moment. I’ve got a proposition for you.” A few of the kids groaned, but Justin held up his hands in appeasement. “It’s a hopefully fun proposition. How many of you have Eric Bittle or Jack Zimmermann, or both, as teachers?”

A showing of hands showed most of them did. A couple had a confused look on their face, but he figured they’d enjoy the plan nonetheless.

“Good. That means a few of you will know what I’m talking about.” He leaned against his desk, crossing his arms. “They are in love with each other. And they don’t know it.”

There was an increase in murmuring, and a few exclamations of validation. Justin grinned more to himself. This was going to be easy to get them on board.

“Me and a few of the other staff members have been trying for a few months now to make them realize their feelings, or at least admit they have feelings for each other. So far, each of our plans have failed.” Justin sighed. “However, we’ve got a brand new plan in the works. And it involves your prom.”

Some of the students started objecting, and Justin listened for a little. Shouts of ‘not my prom’, or ‘I don’t care about them, don’t ruin prom’, ‘if none of your plans have worked, what if prom gets cancelled because you guys are trying to play with fate!’ rung out in the room, and Justin held up his hands again.

“Now I know you have some concerns, but don’t worry: it won’t involve your whole prom. Just one singular slow dance. Hopefully,” Justin muttered the last part under his breath. A few of the kids in the front row looked at him in sympathy, and he couldn’t figure out if he appreciated it or was annoyed by it.

“Dr. Oluransi, why haven’t your other plans worked?” Tera Anfera asked. She looked like she already knew the answer to her own question. Justin wondered if she was in one of the gym classes.

“Tera, do you really want to know?” There was a nod from her, and a few others, and Justin sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. He began going over in detail how the closet incident in January happened. How the dinner in February failed. And then how the camping trip in March almost made Eric freeze instead of fall in love.

After mulling all this information over, Tera and the rest of the students had a mini conference. Justin raised an eyebrow, but let them talk it out. A minute later, Tera, who seemed to be the elected spokesperson, turned back to Justin.

“Alright, Dr. O. What do you need us to do?”

* * *

With the support of the students on his side, Justin had only a few more pieces to put into place. Getting the DJ on board, making sure the two of them were in the right place at the right time, things that needed to take place at prom.

What Justin didn’t expect was Jack to come up to him one day at lunch with a sheepish expression.

“Hey, uh. Justin. I know you told me to pick out a better suit, but uh. I’ve never? Actually gone shopping for myself? I bought that suit with Shitty. At the time it fit...” He scuffed the toe of his (bright, hideously neon) shoe into the ground, and Justin looked him up and down. It would be a struggle to find something that fit, and looked good on Jack. All that hockey butt.

“Meet me at the mall on Saturday at one o'clock. I’ll help you pick out a suit for prom next week. And a pair of shoes.” Justin stared at the offending items, before looked back at Jack. “Or two.”

Justin arrived at the mall a few minutes early, but Jack arrived at 1:00pm sharp. The man was punctual, Justin had to give him that. Jack tried to start walking towards one of the cheaper suit places, like Men’s Warehouse, but Justin grabbed him by his collar.

“Oh, no, you don’t. We’re going to use some of that money you’ve got saved up.” He started dragged Jack towards Hamilton's Haberdashery, and Jack didn’t object. Justin wouldn’t have let him, but it would’ve been interesting to see Jack put a foot down in this situation.

Jack was measured and fitted by an old man with careful hands, and Justin leaned back in a chair, waiting. He would only approve the right suit, in the right color, the right fit, the perfect look. The clothes make the wearer, and Jack wasn’t going to look ugly, that was final.

The first suit Jack had on was black, generic, and didn’t quite look right on him. Justin couldn’t even picture him wearing it to a wedding. The next suit was a dark navy, and again Justin shook his head. Something about dark colors didn’t work on Jack, at least not right now, and not for prom.

The next suit was the one. A shade of grey blue, not too dark, not too light. A pair of brown dress shoes, a tie that matched Jack’s eyes. If Justin didn’t know any better, he would want Jack for himself. Jack played with the cuffs of his jacket, looking himself over. The pants would have to be tailored to fit a bit better, and the jacket too, but those were expected. Justin imagined the changes, and figured Jack would look even better once it was tailored to fit.

“Alright, Jack. We’ll have to come back to pick it up later, once everything is done, but what do you think?”

“I think I look a little silly.”

“Nonsense! You look perfectly fine. And you’ll look even better once it fits all your assets.” Jack looked down at his shoes, and looked for all accounts uncomfortable. “Alright, go and pay the man.”

Once Jack finished paying, they left the store, and went their separate ways. Justin was satisfied with his work. Jack would look perfect. Now to make sure prom would go perfectly.

* * *

The night of prom, Justin showed up when he was supposed to, and was pleased to see Jack in the new suit, and Eric dressed just as nicely as he expected. Step one was done. Now just to work on the next few steps.

The students all started showing up, and a few of them gave nods to Justin. They were in on the plan. It felt like some type of heist about to go down. Adam would appreciate that analogy. Justin made a note to never tell him that.

All the teachers spread out along the floors, keeping an eye on all the students milling around. Justin kept an eye on Jack and Eric, who were on opposite ends on different floors. Justin wasn’t sure how he would make sure they both ended up by the dance floor. Luckily he would have the other teachers helping him out. He noticed Shitty near Jack and Chris near Eric, and Larissa and Will by the dance floor. There would be a switch at some point, Shitty pushing Jack down, Chris moving Eric, Larissa and Will switching, Adam and Derek making sure the two of them stayed down there. The plan relied on their willingness to fill the holes in security, but there wasn’t much they could do about that.

A lot of the students on the dancefloor were the same kids who had nodded at him by the door. So, they were in place. Time to change the tune and shift the teachers.

Justin pulled out his phone, sending off a quick text to Shitty and Larissa, setting the plan in motion. There were strict instructions to keep an eye on everyone so that they would know when to move, but Justin figured it was best to tell someone on the ground as well. He knew how unreliable these people were in some cases.

He watched as Larissa pulled her phone out from who-knows-where, and then quickly cross over to Will. They talked briefly, and Justin turned his attention to where Shitty was, watching as he moved to where Jack stood. They talked briefly, with Shitty gesturing to the dance floor, and Jack hesitated before nodding. Once Jack was on the move, Justin turned his attention to Where Chris was, and watched as Chris looked down, and then up, seeing Larissa moving, and Shitty alone on the floor above. He moved to Eric, and a similar scene played out as the one with Jack. Eric took less time thinking about it, smiling at Chris before moving towards the stairs.

Things were going smoothly, and Justin was relieved. He had taken into account everything that could go wrong, and was still afraid something would go wrong, but at least nothing had yet. Justin stayed where he was, with a perfect vantage point of everyone else, as the pieces fell into place. Nowhere was left unaccounted for, now all that had to be done was for the DJ to change songs and the kids to push their teachers together.

Easy as pie. Right? Justin watched with baited breath, as Jack and Eric assumed their positions near the dance floor. He saw one of the kids go up to the DJ, glancing over her shoulder, and the DJ picked up the mike.

“It’s time to slow it down. Grab that special someone, and dance the night away,” he said. Some pop love ballad began to play, and Justin noticed with a hint of satisfaction that Eric glanced at Jack briefly. The guy was so far gone, it was almost funny to watch.

A few kids crowded onto the dance floor, pulling Jack along for the ride, and as much as he appeared to protest, the students wouldn’t let him go. On the other side, there was a similar situation going on with Eric. This was the moment of truth, and everything was going to plan.

Jack and Eric were forced to meet in the middle, surrounded by a bunch of slow dancing kids, side eyeing them. Everyone was waiting to see what they would do. Eric started to gesture and talking a mile a minute, and Justin could see the blush all the way from where he stood. Jack looked like he almost wanted to just reach out and initiate the dance, but something was holding him back.

About halfway into the song, they still hadn’t figured out what to do. Some of the kids were trying to bump into them, and it succeeded in bumping them closer to each other, but they were still trying to avoid touching each other. Justin had half a mind to make sure that a bunch of slow songs played in a row, but then his plan fell apart right before his eyes.

There was a scream that broke out right near the punch bowl, and a big commotion. Jack and Eric looked at each other, before quickly pushing through the crowd over to whatever it was. Justin rushed down the stairs to where they were, to find a girl had thrown up, then promptly passed out.

Eric was on the phone with 911, and Jack was making sure the girl was still alive, probably. Justin wasn’t sure how she had managed to drink so much. That is, until he stood by the punch bowl, and groaned as he smelled the alcohol from where he stood. He figured it wasn’t the only cause, just the latest, and he sighed.

“Someone spiked the punch bowl, but I don’t think that’s the only thing she had. I’ll go dump the punch.” Justin picked up the punch bowl, and gave the two of them a nod. As Justin walked past the dance floor, he could see the looks on everyone’s faces: fear, curiosity, and a bit of disappointment.

Certainly wasn’t how he expected this night to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't remember what the building was called, but where I had my senior prom, it was 3 stories that all opened out onto the main floor. (So, from every floor you could see down.) The building in this scene is based on that. The prom a little less so (we never had a punch bowl, only little bottles of water), but I'm guessing if y'all went to prom you can just imagine what it could be like on the dance floor level.


	9. Eric Bittle- May

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An art museum doesn't help matters. (AKA: Plan E: Just put them in front of art and get them to talk).

It took a couple weeks after prom for everything to be normal again. The girl who passed out only spent a little while in the hospital, and didn’t have to get her stomach pumped, but everyone felt they had to walk on eggshells with her. No one wanted to say that she ‘ruined prom’, but Eric could tell some of them were thinking it.

For his part, Eric was secretly glad that it happened. Not because of what happened to the student, but that it kept him from doing something stupid with Jack. Eric had wanted to just wrap his arms around Jack and dance with him, but he didn’t want to deal with that rejection. He was just about to do it too, when someone had screamed. He could barely keep the breath of relief from escaping.

It didn’t stop Eric from feeling a little awkward around Jack again, but at least nothing happened between them. Eric was probably the one making it awkward, anyways.

The rest of April was uneventful, minus all the students taking their AP tests and seniors receiving their college acceptance letters. Every so often Eric would walk down the halls, where stressed students mingled with excited students. April was a weird time of year in high school.

May came around, and Eric began to get busier, trying to come up with the final that he’d have to give out early to all his seniors. He spent most of his lunches in his classroom, figuring out recipes that would encompass everything that his students had learned for the school year.

Eric was just putting the finishing touches on a pie experiment, when Larissa entered his classroom, swinging a chair around and sitting down, resting her arms on the back of it.

“Whatcha working on?”

“Something to test my kids with. I can’t figure something out that’ll test them on everything.” Eric wiped his brow. He had about five ideas, but couldn’t figure out a way to boil it down into one.

“Well, why don’t you make them work in groups and make a full course meal.” Larissa rested her head on her arms, looking up at Eric. He looked back at her in stunned silence.

“Larissa, you genius. That gives me the perfect opportunity to wrap all my ideas into one. Takes some of the stress off of me.” He pulled a chair out and sat down with a huff. His pie was done and there wasn’t like he could do anything with it yet.

“Great! So, Eric, think you could do me a solid?” Eric eyed her suspiciously. That was a pretty quick turn around.

“Depends. What is it.”

“Well, at the end of the month, me and Jack take our AP kids out on a field trip to a museum. My AP Art History class and my AP Art Studio class can look at the art, and Jack’s AP History classes can look at the history, it’s a win-win situation for us,” Larissa said. She sounded like she had rehearsed this before.

“However, this is 64 students we’re talking about. Even with parent volunteers, we don’t have enough chaperones. I was wondering, if you’d be willing to help out? We can get Tony to cover your classes for the day, since he’s done it before.” Eric sighed, looking at her for a period of time. Did he want to spend any time with Jack outside of classes? An art museum isn’t exactly the most professional location.

“What’s in it for me? It’s a busy time of year for all of us, Larissa,” Eric said.

“You get to relax and look at beautiful art in the process of making sure these kids don’t burn down the museum?” Larissa shrugged her shoulders, but Eric could tell how much she wanted him to go. It was strange to think about, if he was honest.

Instead, he just nodded. Might as well get away from the kitchen for the day. It couldn’t hurt.

“It couldn’t hurt,” he said out loud. Larissa smiled, before reaching over to give his head a rub.

“Thanks, dude. Knew I could count on you.” She hopped up out of her chair and breezed out the door. Eric stared after her, until the bell rang for class. What had he gotten himself into?

* * *

A week passed before Larissa came by where Eric and Shitty sat chatting in the teacher lounge, handing them both a packet of papers.

“Hey, dudes. This is the chaperone packet. Because you are teachers, there’s a whole bunch of things you have to sign, but I trust you can figure it out.” She sat down next to them, and Eric glanced at Shitty.

“She rope you into going too?” Shitty simply nodded, thumbing through the packet. Eric turned to it himself. There were a few things to fill out, like his classes that he’d be missing, and he didn’t think he had any questions on it.

“Turn it into me before the end of the month, yeah? The field trip is the week before senior finals, so keep that in mind,” Larissa said after a moment. Eric nodded, and Shitty followed suit. “Great. Thanks for this, you guys. I’ll see you later.”

She got up, going over to Jack, presumably to tell him about the chaperone situation. Eric looked away, determined not to look at Jack. Instead, he busied himself with filling out the papers.

The warning bell rang, and Eric was startled. By this time, he and Jack would’ve been discussing what to do in their classes, but it hadn’t happened this time. He glanced over to where Jack had been, to find him not there. Eric pursed his lips, before packing his bag and going to his classroom. He realized he’d have to come up with a sub plan, which is probably the most annoying part of this.

Between his classes, he tried to think of something simple for the sub to do. He spent yet another lunch working on something for his classes. Eric was looking forward to this field trip, even if it was only to have a break from trying to figure out what to do with his classes. It’s been a long year.

* * *

The day of the field trip came up a lot sooner than Eric expected. He felt like he was leaving his kids, it made him feel guilty. He wanted to get the day over with as quickly as possible. He arrived at his usual time, to find Jack, Shitty, and Larissa already there.

“Oh Eric good. I was just telling the others the plan. The parent chaperones will be arriving with the students in about an hour, and the buses will show up half an hour later. Each teacher will have a group of students, an even mix from the four classes going. Each group will have one teacher and one parent chaperone, for a total of eight chaperones. Since it’s a chaperone for eight students, it’s a good thing we’ve got you and Shitty with us.” Larissa gestured between the two of them.

Eric nodded. Everything sounded reasonable, and it also meant he wouldn’t have to see Jack. He was having a hard time sitting across the table from him.

“We’ve got two buses, and there will be four chaperones on each bus. Two teachers, two parents. Shitty, you’ll be with Larissa, Bittle, you’re with me,” Jack said, effectively ruining Eric’s plans of not looking at Jack. He tried to push out a smile, trying to not let his nerves show.

They chatted about things until the students showed up, where for the next half hour, they made sure everyone was there, dividing them into their groups, and making sure they knew what they were doing. Then, the buses showed up, and Jack and Eric broke off with their group to go to their bus. The two parent chaperones boarded the bus first, followed by the students, and then finally Jack and Eric, who were forced to sit together in the front.

The bus driver went through the safety instructions, and then they were on their way. Eric forced himself to look out the window, avoiding Jack as best as he could. Luckily, Jack wasn’t the talkative type, and the only sound on the bus was the excited chatter of the students.

* * *

They arrived at the museum and broke off into their groups. Eric led his group to one end, as far as he could get from Jack’s group. He found himself in an ancient Greek exhibit of the museum, and let his group run wild. He sat on a bench, staring at one of the statues from across the room. It was nice, but it just made him think about how Shitty would call Jack a ‘blah blah blah Adonis blah blah blah’. Eric hoped that not everything in this museum would make him think of Jack.

He got up, moving to the next room, which looked like ancient Roman art, which was only slightly better than the ancient Greek. Eric moved to the next room, hoping the parent chaperone would stay in the Greek room with the kids, and found himself in a room with Impressionist art.

Eric sat down on a bench in there, enjoying a van Gogh. No people in these paintings, and if there are any, they are indistinct. Nothing to make him think of Jack.

Except, of course, Jack wandering into the room himself, spotting Eric, and making a B line for him. Eric almost dropped his head into his hands. There goes his plan of avoiding Jack in the very large museum they were currently in.

“Hey Bittle. Where are your kids?” Jack sat down next to him, looking at the same van Gogh.

“Last I checked, they were in ancient Greece, with the parent chaperone. I… wanted to look at paintings, not statues, so I came here.” Eric pulled that excuse out of his ass, but it was better than the truth, that he didn’t want to be reminded of Jack.

Jack nodded, sitting there in silence for a bit. The painting they were looking at was one of van Gogh’s flower pieces, a bright blue background with white blossoms. It was peaceful, but Eric couldn’t sit still. The bench wasn’t very big, and Jack was a little too close.

Eric stood up, moving to the other side of the room, near the Monet paintings. He kept his back to Jack, but he could hear Jack get up. He closed his eyes and crossed his arms, until Jack’s breath was audible over his shoulder. He opened his eyes again, keeping them trained on the painting in front of them.

After an increasingly uncomfortable silence, Eric sighed.

“We should go back to our groups. While it’s nice to look at the art, I don’t like leaving them only partially supervised.” Eric turned to Jack, forcing himself to look at him. “I’ll see you at lunch, then, Jack.”

He turned to go, and heard Jack start to say something, but Eric picked up the pace, going back into the ancient Rome room. His students had moved there in the time he was in the other room, and a few of them glanced at him as he entered. For the next few hours he kept his attention to the statues and the students.

* * *

At lunch, he couldn’t avoid Jack, as the teachers were all eating together, but he could avoid talking to Jack. He knew it was silly, but he didn’t want to think about Jack at all. He was afraid something would come out before he could stop it, and he didn’t want to deal with Jack for the rest of the year because of it.

So, he kept his conversations pointed at Shitty and Larissa as best as he could. Of course, he didn’t want to be rude to Jack. He just didn’t want to talk to him.

He finished eating, and excused himself to wander around where the kids were eating, taking himself away from Jack. He struck up a few conversations with the students. Finally, lunch time ended, and the groups trouped back onto the buses.

Yet again, Eric sat in the window, and avoided looking at Jack the entire time. Eric could feel, rather than hear, that Jack wanted to say something, but he was glad when the remainder of the trip passed by in silence.


	10. Jack Zimmermann-June

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jack finally figures it out, and a graduation kiss ensues.

Jack noticed that Bittle was giving him the cold shoulder, but he couldn’t figure out why. It had been going on for two months but ultimately came to a head at the field trip. Jack was hurt. He couldn’t find a good time to ask though, as finals were coming up, and then ultimately graduation.

A few students had come up to him during his classes, asking to get their diploma from him, and during the classes he shared with Bittle, they both got requests. Jack noticed that Bittle got a few more. Not the Jack was counting. He wasn’t competitive like that anymore.

On the weekend he invited Shitty over. He needed help figuring out what was up with Bittle, or what problem he had with Bittle or just…. Bittle. Shitty came right away, making a B line for Jack’s couch. Jack brought a couple beers out of the fridge and sat down next to him, offering the beer.

They sat there in silence for a bit, before Shitty cleared his throat.

“What’s up, man? Why’d you call me over? Not like I don’t flourish in your presence, and adore being here,” Shitty said, taking a big sip of his beer.

“Nothing’s up, Shitty. Can’t I just hang out with my best friend?” Jack took a sip from his beer as well, though much smaller. Shitty gave him a look, and Jack sighed. “Fine. There’s just something about Bittle, I can’t quite figure out.”

“Eric? Did he do something?” Shitty set down his beer, turning his full attention to Jack. It would’ve been disconcerting with anyone else, but Shitty always did emotional stuff at 110%, in the same way Jack did everything else 110%.

“No… It’s more about what he didn’t do.” Jack sighed, and Shitty gestured for him to continue. “I think he’s giving me the cold shoulder. We haven’t talked all that much at all, even about our classes.”

Shitty squirmed a little, looking anywhere but Jack. Now  _ this _ was uncharacteristic of Shitty. Though, as Jack thought about it, it was becoming more and more common. With all of his friends too. Jack put his beer on the coffee table, leaning forward, with his head in his hands.

“Yo, Jack, you alright?” Shitty leaned forward as well, trying to get a look at Jack’s face. Jack sighed and shook his head.

“Just tired, Shits. Don’t worry about it.”

“I will worry about it, because you are my best friend.” Shitty threw an arm around Jack’s shoulders, literally pulling him out of his slumped position. Jack looked at Shitty for a bit, before looking back at the beer, watching the condensation drip down.

“I feel like everyone is doing something behind my back, conspiring against me,” Jack refused to look at Shitty, but could feel him stiffen. It could just be the anxiety talking, but the way his friend was acting was enough to vindicate his suspicions.

“Bro, I’m sorry you’re feeling that way. I’m sure your friends aren’t conspiring against you. Hell,  _ I’m _ not conspiring against you, on scout’s honor.” Shitty held up a three-finger salute.

“Why the girl scouts’ salute?”

“Brah, the boy scouts are a morally flawed organization. Girl scouts sell cookies and are alright people. I’m more surprised you recognize it,” Shitty said. He picked up his beer again, releasing Jack from his strong hold.

Jack laughed before picking up his own beer again. He still refused to look at Shitty though. How could he, when he was lying to his face?

* * *

Jack continued to work with his students, preparing them for their finals, and the seniors for graduation. In his classes he taught with Bittle, he noticed some of the students giving them both sideways glances, and it was enough to keep Jack on edge for the week.

He tried not to take it out on anyone, but he couldn’t help but feel like he was snapping at everyone. He distanced himself from everyone as much as he could, and he and Bittle went from barely talking about work to barely talking at all.

And Jack was  _ miserable _ . He couldn’t figure it out. Why was he so affected by his interactions, or lack thereof, with Bittle? Why couldn’t he just be excited for the summer coming up in two weeks? He went into the staff lounge with a frown on his face more often than not.

Shitty and Larissa noticed it, but there wasn’t much that they could do for him. They looked like they wanted to say something every time Jack walked into a room, but ultimately they would decide against it. Whatever they wanted to say wasn’t important enough to say.

Even though Jack felt terrible, he couldn’t keep his mood from affecting his classes, so he slipped into full on robot mode. It’d been awhile since he had acted that way, but it was better than him moping around. At least in robot mode, he got out what was needed to be said.

It was when Jack started using robot mode around the other teachers that he figured there was something actually wrong with him. He hadn’t felt like this since he was younger, back right after he stopped playing hockey. At that time, he knew why he had felt so bad, and it had to do with hockey. Now, he just couldn’t figure out why he felt this way. Nothing was clicking in his brain.

He went to lunch with Shitty for the first time in almost a week. Shitty was good at figuring out what was wrong with Jack, and he really needed to figure it out. He didn’t want to ruin his students’ graduation because he couldn’t muster a smile onto his face.

“Jack! It’s almost surprising to see you here. You doing alright?” Shitty gave him a concerned smile, and it almost made Jack want to turn around and leave. He hated pity more than anything. Instead, Jack sat down across from Shitty with a sigh.

“No, I’m not.” Shitty instantly turned his full attention to Jack, and waited for Jack to continue. Jack mulled over his words carefully, trying to figure out exactly what it was that he was feeling.

“I think… I think I might be worried about something.” It sounded childish to his own ears, but he couldn’t think of a better way to say it.

“Well, what are you worried about?” Shitty didn’t miss a beat. It’s why Jack went to him for help. He was always willing to put up with Jack’s shit, and Jack had a lot of shit right now.

“I don’t know… mainly why Bittle and I don’t talk anymore. I know it’s partly my fault, but he was giving me the cold shoulder weeks ago. Ever since the camping trip. It was the worst at the museum. You should’ve seen it, Shits, he wouldn’t even look at me.” Jack looked at his hands. He couldn’t figure out why he felt like crying. Were he and Bittle ever that close? Did Jack just blow their friendship out of proportion?

Shitty started and stopped several sentences, and Jack looked up, looking at the comical way that Shitty was flapping his mouth. Eventually though, he settled on something he actually  _ did _ want to say.

“Jack, it’s not your fault. It’s not even his fault. I can’t tell you whose fault it is, but I promise you, it isn’t you. It never was.” Shitty sighed. He pushed his lunch around on his plate, and Jack did the same. Neither one spoke for a while, before Jack couldn’t take it.

“Were we ever even friends, Shitty?” Jack stared down at his plate, though he noticed that Shitty was staring at him.

“Of course you were. You still are. There’s just... something in the way right now. It’ll fix itself, I’m sure.” There was a bit of panic in Shitty’s voice, and it almost made Jack want to laugh, because he’s the one who usually panics. Shitty’s words had an interesting way of calming him down.  _ It’ll fix itself _ . Jack should just let it run its course. He nodded, before taking a bite into his food.

“Thanks, Shitty.”

“Always, Jack.”

* * *

It took a couple more days of not talking to Bittle before Jack figured that letting it run its course fucking  _ sucked _ . His mood hadn’t improved much. He couldn’t figure out what it was about not talking to Bittle that made him feel this way.

They kept running their classes like they had all year, but they had stopped talking about it before each day. Jack missed their discussions. They were more often than not purely professional, but at least they were  _ talking _ . This ‘seeing each other across the gym but never making eye contact or conversation’ thing that they had going on was killing Jack.

Jack figured it was his fault that they weren’t talking. He would just have to make the effort to get them to talk again, before graduation. That was Jack’s current goal. Just to talk to Bittle.

It was finals week for the seniors when he tried to give it a shot. There wasn’t a final in the gym classes, but they still had to go to the class. So, the kids had free time, and Jack had an opportunity to talk to Bittle. He steeled himself up, before walking the all of five feet to where Bittle stood.

“Bittle, hey. It’s… been awhile since we’ve talked, eh?” Jack was painfully aware of how awkward he was being. He could see a couple of the kids nearby rolling their eyes, and he couldn’t tell if it was at him or at something they were talking about. It didn’t help him at all either way.

Bittle looked at him for a moment, crossing his arms. The last time he crossed his arms he cut the conversation short. Jack was about ready to make a break for it, before Bittle dropped his arms and sighed.

“Yeah, it has, Jack. Sorry ‘bout that. I’m not sure what it is.” Jack could tell he was lying, but he didn’t want to press the issue. He was just so happy about talking to Bittle again. It wasn’t even a reasonable amount of happy. Jack was trying to keep a giant smile off his face.

“It’s fine, I did it too. I think I was completely closing myself off from people. In full robot mode.” Jack thought for a second, before raising his hands in the robot. “You know, beep boop.”

Bittle laughed softly, and Jack held back the giant smile as best he could. Instead, he let an extremely smaller one out. He thought back to making Bittle laugh in Annie’s over pop music that Jack pretended not to know. He parroted his words from back then.

“It’s so easy to make you laugh,” he said. Bittle stopped laughing, and instantly Jack thought he had done something wrong. But Bittle was still smiling, so it wasn’t a total bust yet.

“Mr. Zimmermann, your sense of humour astounds me.”

“Your word choice astounds me. How can you say them with that accent of yours?”

Bittle gasped and slapped Jack lightly on the arm, before crossing his arms and turning away with a huff. Jack was glad to know it wasn’t an end to the conversation. Bittle turned back almost right away, with a glimmer in his eyes.

“Why Jack, I didn’t think  _ you _ could judge anyone on their accents. What with all that French Canadian coming out of your mouth.” Bittle tried his hardest to mimic Jack’s accent, and Jack admitted to himself that it was pretty good. But two can play at that game.

“Y’all best not be messin’ ‘round with the French Canadians. They’ll mess you right up to next week.” Jack exaggerated a southern accent as hard as he could, throwing in some fake southernisms. Bittle laughed, clear and wonderful, and Jack didn’t keep his smile back this time, letting it spread across his face.

Why did he spend so long avoiding talking to Bittle? It was the second to last week of school, they wouldn’t see each other for an entire summer. Jack didn’t want to know what he would’ve done if Bittle kept giving him the cold shoulder. Somehow, Jack figured it would’ve been a lonely summer.

* * *

They talked like that for the rest of the week, making fun of each other and talking about things. Bittle was so  _ easy _ to talk to, about everything and about nothing, that Jack couldn’t figure out how he could have not talked to him all this time. They had spent a solid month and a half basically avoiding each other’s existences.

Bittle started to eat his lunches with Jack and Shitty again, and Shitty seemed relieved by this just as much as Jack was. Jack hadn’t noticed, but it looked like Bittle had been giving everyone the cold shoulder. The bright southern baker didn’t seem the type, but everyone has something that makes them close up. Jack knew that well enough.

Jack could feel himself relaxing, completely getting out of robot mode. Something about talking to Bittle pulled him out of himself, and Jack didn’t feel as closed off as he usually did with the approaching summer. Usually, Jack wanted to get to graduation as quick as possible so he could go home as quick as possible. He wanted to get back to Montreal, basically the day after graduation.

But this time, Jack wanted the last two weeks to drag on forever. He wanted to keep talking to Bittle for the rest of the time. He couldn’t figure out  _ why _ though. All he knew is that talking to Bittle was something he looked forward to every day. Jack didn’t want to think too hard on why it was though.

As the last week of school came up, and all the seniors began their senior week, leaving a lot fewer students on campus. Jack busied himself with grading papers, and proctoring for his other class finals. Sometimes he hated having non senior classes, because it meant he actually had to do work. But with Bittle around, it was slightly more bearable.

Bittle had invited all the teachers to help him grade his students’ finals: a full course meal. Bittle could only eat so much, and he was a big opponent to wasting food, so after having tasted and graded each meal, he had the teachers eat one of the meals, and give their own grade. Whatever the teachers said wouldn’t affect the final grade, but Bittle believed that everyone deserved to know that their cooking was enjoyed. Bittle told him all that when explaining why he invited the teachers to eat his students’ finals.

Jack came in with Shitty and Larissa, to find Adam and Justin already scarfing down their dishes. Jack gave a small look of disgust that was laced with amusement.

“How can you enjoy something if you eat it so quickly? You’ll never taste it.” Adam put down his fork, already laden with another piece of food. He guiltily started chewing what was already in his mouth, and Justin did the same. Jack gave a little chuckle, before sitting at a table with Shitty and Larissa. Bittle was nowhere to be seen, but the invitation was to sit down and wait to be served.

“Oh, Jack! And Shitty and Larissa. Glad y’all could make it. I didn’t want my students’ hard work to go to waste. Let me get the first course for you!” Bittle had come out of the back, but before Jack could say anything, he was turning around. Jack was a little disappointed, but he remembered that he was here to help Bittle, not talk to Bittle.

Bittle came back, carrying three dishes, putting one in front of each of them. It was a salad, and as much as Jack would love to start digging in, Bittle started talking, describing what was in it and what the rest of the meal entailed. From his sitting position, Jack couldn’t look much higher than Bittle’s mouth, watching as he talked rather than listening. When Bittle left, Jack turned to the salad, but noticed both Shitty and Larissa looking at him.

“What? Look, the salad looks amazing. Bittle’s students did a really good job.”

“Jack. I can’t believe how oblivious you are.” Larissa shook her head, taking a bite of her salad. Shitty simply shook his head, doing the same.

“What? What do you mean? What am I missing?” Jack stared at them, but they just continued to look at their salads. Jack shrugged, and dug into his own. If they didn’t want to tell him, he wasn’t going to press.

Jack forgot about it for the rest of the time, as Bittle continued to bring out dish after dish until the dessert. Jack was almost too full to eat it, but Bittle said it was hand-made ice cream and Jack wasn’t one to deny someone’s hard work. Not to mention, if he didn’t eat the dessert he couldn’t spend more time with Bittle, or give an accurate grade to the student.

Jack had never felt so full but satisfied in his life. Whoever this student was was really good at cooking. He would tell them as much in his grade report.

“Bittle, this was a really good idea. Thanks for inviting us to do this.” Jack smiled at him, and Bittle smiled back.

“Well, thanks for coming! I wanted to make sure my students had someone to appreciate their cooking. Now, I could’ve invited some of the students to eat it, but I figured that they could get an extra grade out of it this way!” Bittle began to clean up, and Jack jumped up to help, clearing the dishes from where he and Shitty were sitting. Before Bittle could protest, Jack flashed another smile.

“I don’t want you to do all this work yourself, Bittle. You fed us, we might as well help clean up from it.” Bittle had a small smile, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. Jack was surprised to see a bit of panic there, but he tried to brush it off as southern hospitality not wanting to let the guest doing any work.

Jack took the dishes to the back, following Bittle. Bittle put down his dishes, gesturing for Jack to do the same, before clapping his hands together, looking at the dishes.

“Well, Jack, why don’t you go home. I got this handled. Thanks for bringing them back, but you don’t have to clean them.”

“No, I want to help. Why don’t I dry them?”

“No Jack. Please, go home. Don’t you have history papers to grade or something?” Bittle was insistent, so Jack finally agreed, with a nod to see Bittle tomorrow. Jack left the back with a frown on his face.

“Hey, Jacko, what’s up? You look like you ate a lemon the way your face is all puckered up.” Shitty slid off the table he had been sitting on, coming over to Jack. Jack looked at him, sighing. It wasn’t something he wanted to talk about here.

“Shits, do you want to have a grading party? Larissa, you can come too. Are Adam and Justin still here?”

“No, they left while you were in the back with Bittle. Said they hadn’t done any grading yet.” Larissa shook her head, moving over to where the two men stood. “A grading party sounds fun. Your place?”

“Yeah, why not come by in an hour?” Jack gave a small breath of relief. He wanted to talk about Bittle, and how odd he was acting, but not when Bittle was just in the next room.

“Yeah, brah, see ya then,” Shitty said. The three walked together until the parking lot, before going to their separate cars. Jack hoped he could get some answers later.

* * *

“Jacky boy, what was on your mind earlier?” Shitty walked into Jack’s house without a hello. Jack shook his head with a smile, before gesturing to his couch.

“Hi, Shits, welcome, Shits, have a seat, Shits,” Jack said monotonously. Shitty cracked a smile before sitting down, plopping a large pile of papers on the coffee table in front of him.

“Alright, I’m sitting. Now talk.”

“Not until Larissa is here. She should get here soon.” Jack held up a finger. Shitty threw his head back with a groan, but instantly perked up when the door opened and Larissa walked in with her own stack of papers.

“Hey, boys. I didn’t miss anything, right? Figured Shitty would want to know right away, but also figured Jack wouldn’t tell until I got here. So spill, Zimmermann.” She sat next to Shitty on the couch, and both of them turned to him expectantly. Jack looked up at his ceiling for a moment, before looking back at them.

“Bittle was acting weird. He really didn’t want me to help him with the dishes. Like he didn’t want to be in the same room as me anymore.”

Shitty and Larissa exchanged a look that Jack couldn’t read, and after some sort of silent conversation, Shitty shook his head.

“Jack, Jacky Jack Jack. Oh Jack. Jack—“

“Shitty, stop saying my name and get to the point.”

“Right. How you can be so oblivious is beyond all of us, but we all promised not to tell you. So we won’t tell you why Eric is acting that way,” Shitty said. Larissa nodded, and Jack frowned in frustration. So there is something everyone is hiding behind his back.

“Who is ‘we all’?” Jack asked instead. He wanted to know what they were hiding, but Shitty was too stubborn to fold and Larissa was immune to his methods.

“Well, me and Shitty for one, Adam, Justin, Chris, Will, Derek. We’re the ones in on it. But everyone else already knows.” Larissa counted off on her fingers, and Jack looked at her incredulously. When they said everyone, they meant everyone.

“So, you won’t tell me anything, but everyone already knows?” Shitty and Larissa hesitated before nodding.

“Well, not everyone? But pretty much. Pretty sure your students know too.”

“Not the students.”

“Sorry, brah.” Shitty picked up the first paper from his stack, and that was the end of the conversation. Jack’s mind was racing, trying to figure out what could have every single teacher and student in on it. He thought back to everything he hadn’t understood over the past school year, but the only thing that popped into his head was everything to do with Bittle.

Bittle existing in Jack’s life was some sort of enigma in and of itself, but Jack was sure that it couldn’t have anything to do with the small baker. Shitty and Larissa didn’t say that Bittle didn’t know, but they didn’t say that he did know either.

They sat in silence, Jack silently going over everything that he could be ignoring, Shitty and Larissa grading like they were supposed to. Jack was sure that he wouldn’t get anything done tonight.

* * *

Graduation approached quickly, and Jack managed to finish all his grading. He still couldn’t help but think about all the things his friends were hiding from him, so once the last day of school came around, Jack was in a bad mood. Everything his friends said, where he couldn’t hear what was said, was directed at him in his mind. He felt paranoid, but he didn’t know what was being hidden from him and he didn’t know how to not think everything said near him was about whatever it was.

Jack was fiddling with his tie in the gym where all the students sat. They’d line up there, then walk from the gym to the field, where the field was lined with chairs for every student in the graduating class, plus the teachers who would hand off the diplomas.

Jack was to hand off the diplomas to ten students, the maximum. It was the most he’d ever gotten. He would probably be the last to admit he was a hardass, but it’s not like he changed all that much from then to now. Had he?

Bittle had also gotten ten students, but Jack had noticed he had to turn down several students. Jack didn’t think anyone had ever been that popular, other than Shitty. But mostly, Shitty was popular because he had zero filter. Bittle on the other hand, was popular because the students genuinely liked him and looked up to him. It was a little jarring, looking at how much admiration the students had for the man.

Jack smoothed out the jacket of his suit. It was the same suit he wore at prom, but it was also the only suit he owned, since Justin had made him throw out the old one. Justin wasn’t wrong about the suit, but Jack figured he’d have to go shopping for himself again. This suit made him feel self-conscious, with how expensive it was. It looked amazing on him, he’ll admit, but he felt weird wearing it.

Jack glanced up, noticing Bittle across the way. He looked nice, in a blue suit with a red bowtie. He was laughing with a few students. Jack thought he looked good, one of the better dressed teachers in the room. Bittle looked over in his direction, and Jack started. He didn’t know why he felt guilty for staring.

Bittle walked over to him after saying a few parting words to the students. Jack looked around a little, just so it wasn’t like he was just staring at him still. He felt more awkward doing that, though, so he turned his eyes back to Bittle.

“Hey, Jack! Well, here we are, at graduation. What are you gonna do with your summer?” Bittle smiled at him, like he hadn’t seen how Jack had been staring at him. Why was Jack so painfully awkward?

“Oh, hey, Bittle. I usually go home to Montreal for the summer. What about you?” Jack was proud that he didn’t  _ sound _ awkward. Why did he feel so awkward?

“I’m going home to Georgia for a little while. I promised my mama I would, but mostly I’ll be staying ‘round here, trying to find things to do. Didn’t have much time, you know?” Bittle didn’t sound awkward at all, but that was to be expected. If anything though, Bittle sounded a little sad. Jack didn’t know what to do with sad.

“Well, I wish you luck. Shitty never leaves, so you can always ask him for help.” Jack reached out and rested a hand on Bittle’s shoulder, but startled again as an announcement peeled out through the gym.

“Students and teachers! It is time to line up for the procession!” Bittle smiled apologetically, before turning around, moving to the front of the room. Jack fell to the back. Alphabetically, they were never farther apart.

* * *

Sitting on the field, watching the students that he’d been teaching graduate, Jack felt nostalgic. Looking back over the year, thinking about all the moments he had with each person called out. Each person he knew in some way, either through stories told by the other teachers, or from one of his own classes. There had been something different about this class of students as opposed to years in the past.

There had been something different about this year as opposed to years in the past. Jack couldn’t help but think the main thing different was Bittle. Before he came, Jack didn’t think he’d ever had so much fun teaching the gym classes. He didn’t think his students had had as much fun either, thinking back with a small smile to the essays Jack had passed out in the past. This year was lucky that Bittle had vetoed that idea immediately.

Bittle’s group was the second group to go, and as his name was called up, a smattering of cheers petered out from the crowd of students. Jack thought again just how popular Bittle was. Jack looked down his row, at the students smiling next to him. He couldn’t help the frown that he made, thinking yet again how no one else had liked him so much.

Jack tried to turn his attention off of such thoughts, instead thinking about different things each teacher did, from when Chris nearly passed out from talking about the Sharks’ current winning streak, or when Larissa begged Jack to model for his class due to his ‘Adonis looks, according to Shitty’. It wasn’t just the teachers he thought about, but each student whose name he recognized. He tried to think of all the memories he had with each and every person he knew, even if it was just in passing. Like the student who never had him, but said hi to him in the hallways, or the student who ended up in Jack’s classes every year.

He came up with a memory for each person, right up until the last of Pacer’s kids made it back to their seats, and Jack’s kids had to walk up to the stage for their last walk as high schoolers. Jack led them with a little pride, taking the group of ten students he had taught for at least one year on their final journey as his students.

* * *

Jack stood, watching the students tossing their caps. He couldn’t help but feel a little sad. Every memory that had gone through his head made him think that he wouldn’t see any of these kids again. Sure, some would visit, but eventually, they’d stop coming and leave high school far far behind. It was a bittersweet thought, but for now, Jack tried to put on a happy smile. This was their moment, and they deserved it.

Once the caps all landed, the students were free to leave, no longer students, onto their next journey, onto the rest of their life. Many stuck around, for pictures with their friends or to chat with family or even to talk to other teachers. Jack rarely got former students coming up to him, which is why he was surprised by an insistent voice from behind him.

“Coach Z! Coach Z! Wait!” Tera Anfera came running up to Jack, clutching her cap in her hand. She beamed up at him, and Jack smiled awkwardly back.

“Hi, Tera. Look at you, all graduated. Excited for what’s to come?”

“Yup! I can’t thank you enough for everything you taught me. You were one of my favourite teachers!” Jack tried not to show how touched he was by that, instead choosing to switch the conversation.

“Where are you going to college? Oh, did you put it on your cap?” Jack looked at her hand, where she held the panel of her cap to her stomach. She looked down at it too, before responding.

“Oh, no… I didn’t put my college on my cap. I put a quote I really liked.” She flipped the cap around, showing Jack the words written on it. “’You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.’ It’s something I live by, whether in school or work or in relationships. It’s really resonated with me.”

Jack kind of… stopped listening to her. The words his uncle Wayne said, that were now written on Tera’s cap bounced around his head. He can’t believe how  _ stupid _ he was. It was right there, in front of him, and had been for  _ months _ .

_ Oh, god damn it. _

Jack turned tail, looking over the heads of the students for the short man, cursing under his breath. Why’d Bittle have to be so short? Jack remembered he was in the middle of a conversation and turned back around.

“Sorry, Tera… I have to—I have to go.” Jack took off without waiting to hear her reply. He was going to find Bittle if it was the last thing he did. He hoped it would be the last thing he did today.

Jack thought over the entire year—from the moment he met Bittle, to all the little things, to the culmination of the skating unit and the way Jack had felt when Bittle was three inches from breaking his nose— _ his cute button nose _ . To the coffee dates that Jack had unintentionally set up, to getting locked into the closet and just wanting to hold Bittle. To Valentine’s Day and actually wanting to stay for dinner, because Bittle was there. To the camping trip and having to share a tent, and then almost panicking when Bittle fell in the river, and sitting next to him at the fire, watching him sleep on his shoulder.

To prom, and being pressed so close against him. To wanting to kiss him without knowing he actually wanted to kiss him. To Bittle pulling away after that, avoiding him, giving him the cold shoulder. Not looking at him at the museum, brushing him off and not looking at him. How  _ hurt _ Jack felt, how he brushed it off, thinking they just weren’t as good of friends as he thought. To how just one conversation with Bittle had brightened his mood so quickly. How Bittle hadn’t wanted to be in a room alone with Jack.

Jack had been so stupid. All the signs were there, from his own feelings, to what he hoped were Bittle’s feelings. He just had to find the man. Tell him how he felt, make sure that Bittle knew. Jack wasn’t sure he’d be able to figure out the right words to say. Maybe once he found him, he’d be able to find them. He hoped to find them.

It took him five minutes to find Bittle. He stood off to the side, chatting with a few parents and students. Jack stood there and stared. He wasn’t coming up with anything to say. Maybe he’d have to be face to face. He walked up behind Bittle, determination in his eyes.

“Bittle…” 

Bittle spun around, surprise written all over his face.

“Jack! Oh, why are you all out of breath? Did you come running over here? Are you ok? Did something happen? Did you—“

“Eric.” Jack stopped him in his tracks. He didn’t exactly know what he was doing anymore. He just couldn’t stop staring at Eric’s lips. He leaned forward, and kissed him.

It was the best feeling, something Jack felt like he had been missing for a long long time. He didn’t want to stop kissing Eric. Eric was kissing him back, reaching up for the collar of his suit. He didn’t seem to want to stop either. But they needed to come up for air, and Jack was pretty sure he heard cheering.

He pulled away, resting his forehead on Eric’s. Eric had his eyes closed, a small frown playing on his face, confirming Jack’s theory that he hadn’t wanted to stop. Around them, students were cheering, grabbing at each other. A few shouts of “finally!” rung out in the circle, and Jack laughed.

“Seems they all knew, except us.”

“Mr. Zimmermann, I’ll have you know I have known for a very long time that I wanted to do that. I just figured it was one sided.”

“Might as well have been. Appears I’m just as oblivious as Shitty said I was.”

“Glad you figured it out, sweetheart.” Eric pulled him in again, for another kiss. And Jack wouldn’t change anything about this moment for the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if y'all liked this by leaving a comment below or coming to me on [tumblr](http://loveyoutoobits.tumblr.com/)!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Art for It Was Always You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12738147) by [Lasenby_Heathcote](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lasenby_Heathcote/pseuds/Lasenby_Heathcote)




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